


A Pianist's Dreams

by triwizard17



Series: Dark Music [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, F/M, Fantasy, First chapter isn't all that great, Gen, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Magic, Mentions of Mormon Culture, Slow Build, Unique Magic System, Wordy, Writing improves as story progresses, first draft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-16 15:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 35,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9278624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/triwizard17/pseuds/triwizard17
Summary: Music. Its power is recognized all throughout the world. But what people don't realize is that this power is more than just manipulation of the emotions. Christopher and Alvin Larson are twins who were sent to live with their aunt and uncle after their parents died in a car crash with a drunk driver. Living in Arizona has its challenges, especially when everyone seems to hate their guts for their religion. But when Alvin is attacked, he discovers that he and his twin brother hold a power that could destroy everything, including themselves.





	1. CHAPTER I: CHRIS

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know where I got the idea for this story. I started writing it several years ago, though there were periods of time where I got stuck that lasted for months. Please please PLEASE let me know what you think of it. I have 14 full chapters written with chapter 15 about halfway to three-quarters done. I'll update about once a day Monday-Friday(2 or three chapters every day) until I have all of these chapters posted. After that, updates will likely be sporadic, though I'll try to keep them to at least once every other week. Chapter WILL get longer. The first is the shortest

I could feel it, the rhythmic drive of the percussion, the amazing rush of the brass, the sweet melodies of the winds, the divine warmth and mellow tones of the cellos, the light, flowery timbre of the violins and the deep persona of the basses. And it was amazing! The time had come at last, the moment I had longed to reach for years had come.

When the piece concluded, the conductor turned to me. 

“Chris, would you mind solving the problem on the board?” he asked.

“What?” I asked, confused. This was a concert, not school!

“Wake up!” the conductor said.

“Wha...?” I woke with a start. The other kids laughed.

“Would you mind coming to solve the problem on the board? After all, if you were sleeping, surely that means you know the material.” Mr. Jones said.

“I, um...” I looked at the board. The question was about surface area of a sphere. Piece of cake.

The bell finally rang, signaling the end of school. I thought about the dream I had, and I remembered the first concert my dad took me and my twin brother, Alvin, too. The very last piece the group had performed was the entirety of Gershwin’s Concerto in F. I had begun piano lessons the year before that, and I was really impressed by the pianist who performed that day. I watched the musician in wonder as their notes flowed out naturally. The skill and passion the pianist put into that work ignited something within me. Ever since that concert ten years ago, I practiced and practiced, willing myself to get better, to get to that level where I could perform like that pianist all those years ago.

Also, after attending several of our parents concerts, our parents started teaching us to compose. We found that we really enjoyed it! We’d share compositions with our friends, some of which happened to be gifted musicians, and it was hard. Our early compositions sounded terrible, like we stuck in a bunch of notes and chords in a blender and set it to the highest speed possible. But we eventually got better. Soon enough, we were able to compose coherent melodies, then we were able to make simple harmonies to go with the melodies. We learned how to use counterpoints and motifs, and our works got more and more complex and impressive.

About three years ago, my parents were both killed by a drunk driver. Alvin and I were sent to go live with our aunt. Adjusting to life was difficult. Our parents were our guides, our   
companions, a shoulder to cry on when the world seemed bleak and cold, and they were gone, in the blink of an eye. Eventually, Alvin and I decided it was time to move forward. What was done, was done, and moping wasn’t going to bring our parents back to life. 

“Chris? You in there?” Alvin’s voice brought me back to reality.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s a competition. The winner gets to have their work performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra.” Alvin said, showing me his iPod. 

I read the article, hardly daring to believe what I was seeing, “They also get one thousand dollars.” I mused.

“Yes, well that doesn’t really matter to me. How many composers have this opportunity? So many compete for the chance just to have their work played by amateur orchestras! Can you   
imagine how huge this event is going to be?! This is an opportunity to get our music heard by millions. We’ve gotten good enough that we actually stand a chance in competitions like this one!” Alvin was grinning like Christmas had come early.

“I suppose you’re right." I conceded, “But how do we go about entering?”

“It’s explained here...”

* * * * 

At an abandoned building somewhere...

“What did you find?” 

“I found who we’ve been looking for all these years.”

“Who are they?”

“Twins, sir. They live in Phoenix, Arizona. And they have that gift.”

“Bring them to me. I don’t want that meddlesome old fool getting his hands on them!”  
“Understood sir.”

“Do not disappoint me, Radnox. If these twins really have developed that gift, they would prove to be very valuable to our cause, but if they don’t, or if you fail to capture them, well, you know what will happen...”

Radnox gulped, “Understood, sir.”

* * * * 

At a meeting place somewhere else...

“Really, you found two of them?!” One of the men asked, shocked.

“Yes, in Phoenix. Unfortunately, it seems they have caught wind of it as well." The other replied.

“No! If they get their hands on them...!”

“I know, it wouldn’t be good...”

“Wouldn’t be good?!” A woman asked incredulously, standing in the doorway, “It would mean the end of the Earth, and that’s not even the worst of it!”


	2. CHAPTER II: ALVIN

Being fourteen really had its downsides(at least for me). Chris and I were the outcasts at school, we were teased a lot because we didn’t like the same type of music as everyone else, and they knew it. Chris seemed to take it a lot better than I did, but I knew that he was one heck of an actor. Chris and I were also teased because of our height. We were pretty short, about four foot five inches. We were thin, as well. It seemed like they found new material every week. 

We both had blond hair and green eyes, and we both wore glasses. It really infuriated the teachers when we were both placed in the same class, as we would often switch seats with each-other. Even our voices were eerily similar. One could only tell us apart if we were wearing different clothing, but what was the fun in that?

Today was Saturday, thank goodness. We could finally get started on our entry for that competition I found last Thursday. Chris and I were sitting around the piano, brainstorming ideas. Chris had his laptop out, with a notation program running while I sat on the piano. We would take turns, one of us playing melodies on the piano   
and the other writing the melody in the notation software and coming up with harmonies. We spent about four hours composing, and we managed to get about ten measures into the piece(composing orchestral stuff was a lot of work).

I decided to go and stretch my legs. I invited Chris to come with me, but he wanted to practice his piano. We were learning   
Carnival of the Animals, by Camille Saint-Saëns(one of the few concertos for two pianos and orchestra,) he was playing first piano and I was playing second.

But that’s not what I was thinking about during my walk. I was thinking about how it would have been hard, to lose my parents when I was a little child. But, in my opinion, it was a lot harder to experience the grief of losing them at the tender age of eleven. We would attend concerts, some of which were of pieces our dad had composed; we would go bowling, ice skating and do so many wonderful things together. They were never mean or disrespectful towards anyone. Why was I thinking of them now, of all times? 

Chris and I had developed dreams of becoming composers, but I never put much thought as to why. I realized it was because our dad was a composer, and we wanted to follow in his footsteps, to surpass him.

By the time I heard the footsteps it was too late. I was grabbed from behind, some man picked me up by the waist and draped me over his shoulder. My heart was pounding in my chest. I was so scared that it was hard to breathe and I couldn’t think straight. What would happen to me? Would I be killed? In my panic, I heard an odd sound. The sound grew louder, and louder, and I realized it sounded like really high strings, the pitches sliding up and down. There was a crash like a cymbal, and the man let me go. He flew backwards and dropped me like a sack of potatoes. As soon as the crash sounded, the strings stopped. I was breathing heavily. ‘What in the world just happened?’ I wondered.

I turned to look at the man. He was unconscious. I listened to see if he was breathing, and to my relief I found that he was. I didn’t   
want to linger around in a place that was clearly not safe for me, so I bolted back to my house.

When I got home, I told Chris what happened.

“Real..?” He began, clearly not believing me, but when he saw the look on my face, his eyes widened. “You idiot!” He exclaimed, “Don’t wander off alone again! I should have stopped you. And as for what happened to that other guy, I don’t know how to explain it. Wasn’t natural, that’s for sure.” he growled.

“No kidding.” I muttered.

“Don’t tell Katie or Jordan about this.” Chris warned. Katie and Jordan were our aunt and uncle. Katie was dad’s sister, and Jordan was mom’s brother. It was kind of funny the way they were related.

“I wasn’t planning on it.” I replied. There was a knock on the door. 

“I’ll get it.” I said as I walked over and peered through the eye-hole. It was a girl, about our age. I opened the door.  
“  
Hello, Alvin Larson." the girl grinned creepily.

“How do you know who I am?!” I demanded, scared. 

She laughed, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. Probably. Go get your brother, I don’t want to explain this more than once."

I slammed the door in her face.

She knocked, and I reluctantly opened the door. She was obviously trying not to bust out laughing.

“How do we know if we can trust you?” I asked.

“You don’t." she replied, “And for future reference, I’m Cara."

“I’m here, what do you want, Cara?” Chris asked, standing behind me.

“You were listening?!” Alvin yelped.

Chris rolled his eyes, “One could hear you in China, bro."

“We were that loud?” Cara asked

Chris nodded. “You mean you didn’t realize it?” he asked.

Cara looked like one could fry an egg on her face.

“Good. You’re both here. Are your guardians home?” Chris and I shook our heads, “Do you have some place comfortable to sit down? This is going to take some time." Cara grinned slyly.

“Come in." I said reluctantly. 

Chris and I lead Cara to the living room. We sat down on the couches. “Now that we’re comfortable, please explain to us why you’re here, Cara." Chris said patiently.

“My mother and her colleagues sent me here." Cara explained, “You two are both in terrible danger." Cara said grimly.

“Okay." Chris said sarcastically, “What are we in danger from? Terrible creatures? Aliens?” 

“This is serious!” Cara exclaimed, “You two would prove invaluable to the Tecrax!”

“Who are the Tecrax?” I asked,

“The Tecrax are the bad guys. We’re the good guys." Cara said helpfully.

“That explains everything! Tell me, where are the hidden cameras? Do you make it a hobby to knock on random doors and tell them that they’re in danger?” Chris rolled his eyes.

Cara glared at Chris. “You were attacked, were you not?” she asked pointedly.

I stared, “How on earth do you know that?”

“My music tells me things." she said nonchalantly.

“You could have helped them." Chris said pointedly.

If looks could kill, Chris would have been incinerated a thousand times over. 

“I would never, ever, help them. I would rather die." Cara spat.

Chris nodded shakily, his face so pale it looked like ash

“I’m a recruiter for a prestigious school that teaches music. You two have come to our attention, because you have an extremely   
rare ability that could prove invaluable to us. I don’t have it myself, I only know about it because my parents have it as well."

Chris and I nodded. We looked at each-other, and in that moment, we somehow realized that Cara was telling the truth.   
“What’s this place called?” we asked simultaneously.

“It’s called Jokarts." Cara said.

“What kind of name is that?” I asked.

“Don’t insult the name! It is a very cool name." she huffed.

“Sure...” Chris drawled.

“So what do we need to do to get in?” I asked.

“You’ll need to get everything listed on these letters." she instructed, pulling two white envelopes out. “The next term starts on August first. On that day, you will be woken up by Holst’s Jupiter, from the Planets. After Jupiter is over, you will find yourself on the   
shore of a lake. Overlooking the lake is Jokarts. No it’s not a castle, it’s very much like a modern college, but it is still a truly remarkable sight to behold. The college is located at one of the most beautiful places on Earth and beyond.”

“Beyond? You mean there really are aliens?” Chris asked incredulously.

“That’s a story for another time and place.” 

“But...” Chris whined.

“Not now!” Cara interrupted. 

Chris pouted like a little child. I knew how much Chris loved aliens. His favorite TV show involved lots of aliens. And time travel. And blue police boxes. It was my favorite TV show too, but that’s beside the point.

After Cara left, we sat in silence for about thirty minutes. “So, do you want to open the letters?” I asked.

“Sure, why not?” Chris replied.

We opened our letters, and when we saw what was written on them, our jaws dropped.

“Jeez, that’s a really long list of supplies!” I yelped.

 _ **The List**_  
Concert black

Instrument of your choice(unless it’s piano or percussion, we provide those for you,)

Hat of your choice. That includes fezzes, fedoras, etc. This is for the end-of-year party

A laptop. 

The laptop must have notation software. MuseScore is recommended for those who cannot afford to pay much, as it is free.

 _Books_  
Music and Me By Herald B Gorgonson

Composition Theory By John Larson 

A Study of Music and the Brain By Angela Larson

What Not to do When Composing Music By Christopher Mark

A History of the Tecrax By Lere MeCrow 

The Founding of Jokarts and More By Lere McCrow

Make Your Music Exciting!! By Susan Yaner

Writing for Film, Why So Many Composers Fail By Arthur Jenson

Listen to the Music By Arnold Jackson

Writing for Percussion, the Ins and Outs By Brady Gorra 

Enough #2 pencils to last the entire year.

Enough pens(red and black) to last the year

Winter clothing(scarves, hats, coats, etc)

A 100 page manuscript notebook

A good attitude! 

For students that aren’t able to afford everything, we do have fundraising opportunities

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all I'll be able to post today. Please tell me what you think!


	3. CHAPTER III: CHRIS

CHAPTER III: CHRIS

 

“We’re just going out shopping, we’ll be back before you know it! You two behave yourselves."

My mother kissed Alvin and I on the cheeks when she said that. After two hours passed, we started to get worried. Three hours past, then four, and still no sign of mom or dad. After the five hour mark passed, there was a knock on the door.  
I answered it, and to my surprise, a policeman was standing on the other side. “Is this the Larson household?” he asked. I nodded, wondering why he was here. What had happened? Were we in trouble?

“Your parents, John and Angela Larson, were both killed in an accident with a drunk driver." he said..

“No...” I whispered."You’re wrong! They said they would be back, they said...” I trailed off.

“What’s wrong?” Alvin asked, running to me.

“This man says our parents are dead." I mumbled.  
Alvin’s eyes widened. He sank to his knees and started crying.

“I’m sorry." the officer said.

“Where will we go? What will happen to us? No... mom and dad can’t die! Not now!! We need them. They’re not dead! They’re not...” Alvin screamed.

“You have an aunt and uncle that live in Phoenix, Arizona. You will have 24 hours to pack your bags and say your goodbyes. I know, this is a lot to take in, and...”  
“Shut up!” I snarled.

The police officer surprisingly did as he was told. 

“We’ll start packing now, please just leave us alone, please, they can’t die, they can’t, they can’t, they...” Alvin whispered dazedly. 

Chris put his hand on Alvin’s shoulder. “Don’t worry." he muttered, “This is a lot to take in, for both of us. Please, just leave! We’ll pack, like Alvin said we would, let us grieve in peace!”

The officer nodded and left. 

I woke up from that horrible dream. I didn’t dream about that terrible day as much as I used too, but it still happened now and then.

I thought about yesterday’s visit from that girl Cara. She gave us each a letter containing what we would need. Alvin and I both had laptops, and both laptops had MuseScore installed on them, so we could check that off the list.

Alvin and I both skimmed through the list of books. That’s what had surprised us the most. That school had a lot of books listed on their supplies list.

I pulled out the list again, reading it silently to myself. When I got to the second and third books, my heart jumped to my throat. These two books are by John and Angela Larson. I thought. I didn’t know they wrote! It might have been a different John and Angela Larson. Larson was a pretty common last name. Yes, that was probably it. 

Alvin was still asleep. ‘It’s Sunday,’ I thought, ‘He deserves to sleep in. We don’t have to be anywhere until one, and he’s been through a lot,’

Alvin and I both belonged to the LDS church. That was another thing we were bullied for, apparently a lot of people here in Arizona didn’t like Mormons. It was a lot different than it was in Utah, that’s for sure. In Utah, we weren’t bullied nearly as much, if at all. It was yet another thing I missed about our old home. We had friends there, we still wrote emails to each other, and sometimes we had video conferences. There were no secrets between us, they even knew about the little event with Alvin.

I reached for my glasses, which were on the windowsill, and put them on. I went upstairs, and found that Katie was already awake. “Good morning, Chris." she smiled.

“Mornin’." I mumbled, stifling a yawn. Katie and Jordan were the only ones who could tell Alvin and I apart. I suppose it had to do with the fact that they were our relatives.

“Did you sleep well?” she asked.

“I had that dream again." I said, rubbing my eyes. 

“Oh. I’m sorry." Katie said, “Would you like something to eat?”

“Don’t you think we should wait for Jordan and Alvin to wake up?” I asked.

Katie looked embarrassed, “That’s right, today’s Sunday! Nobody has to go anywhere for a while...”

“Katie, would you mind if I made french toast?” I asked.

“Of course not!” She replied, grinning.

“Thanks." I said gratefully.

Alvin came upstairs after I was finished making the french toast, and Jordan got up about five minutes after. We finished eating, and Alvin and I went back downstairs to our room, sitting on our beds.

“Did you read the book list?” Alvin asked.

“Yes, I did." I replied.

“The second and third books, what do you think of the authors’ names?”

“I think it’s a coincidence." I replied.

“I’m not so sure...” Alvin said skeptically.

“When would they have had the time to do something like that? Dad and mom both had full time jobs teaching at Ricksfield  
High!” I said.

“Fair point...” Alvin sighed.

“Katie and Jordan have already ordered supplies for us. They were apparently phoned about our new school while we were talking with Cara." I said gently, changing the subject.

Alvin said nothing.

“Something wrong, Al?” I asked, concerned.

“You haven’t used that nickname since mom and dad died...” Alvin whispered, a smile slowly forming on his lips.

“I think it’s about time I changed that." I grinned.

Alvin leapt off his bed and tackled me in a hug, which was kind of odd. Did he really miss that nickname that much? Then I  
realized that he did miss it, because it was more than just a mere nickname, it was a symbol of our bond, of our trust in each other, which I abandoned. 

_‘Al,’_ I thought, _‘I’m back. The old Christopher Larson is back. I’m done wallowing in self-pity. I haven’t looked out for you as much as I should have, Al, and I hope that you’ll be able forgive me,’_ I hugged Alvin back. After all, we were brothers, and what was a hug between siblings, between friends?

Alvin and I released each other, laughing. “We should do that more often." I said happily, as soon as we calmed down.

“Just not at school." Alvin agreed. 

“Well, maybe at Jokarts...” I trailed off.

We laughed again. I was extremely grateful for the close relationship I had with my brother, and I wondered how many siblings were as close as we were. I don’t know any other people that could trust their family as much as Alvin and I trusted each other. 

“I want you to promise me something." Alvin said.

“What?”

“I want you to promise me that, no matter what, we’ll never, ever abandon each other. Got that?”

“I swear it on my life." I said immediately, and I meant it.

“I’m glad the people at school don’t know about this little conversation we’re having, who knows what they’d say?” Alvin asked.

“Who cares what they think? They don’t understand what it’s like to have lost as much as we have. They don’t understand how bonds with people truly form. We’re only fourteen years old, yet we understand things that most adults seem to forget. It surprises me how often people seem to neglect friends and family for things that don’t really matter, like money and fame. Heck, I’d even go as far as to say forming bonds like the one we have is more important than getting an education. Living with people you share bonds with, even if it is a life of poverty, is a better life than living alone, rich and famous." I replied.

“You’re getting philosophical." Alvin teased.

“What’s wrong with that?” I asked, pretending to be insulted.

“Nothing." Alvin grinned.

“I thought so." I laughed. We hugged each other again, and how I wish now that that moment could have lasted forever, me and my brother, smiling and laughing, without a care in the world.

“How much time until we leave?” Alvin asked as soon as we released the hug.

“There’s a clock right there." I said, gesturing to the alarm clock on the windowsill.

“Ah. We still have three hours...” Alvin muttered.

“Let’s work on our composition then." I suggested.

The three hours seemed to pass by extremely quickly. Alvin and I got another fifteen measures into the piece we were writing, and so far it was coming out extremely well. We poured all of our knowledge of music theory into it, but more than that, we poured our hearts and our souls into it. And it was worth it, in my opinion. Some things just couldn’t be bought, some things could only be earned through sheer effort and determination, and this was one of those things.


	4. CHAPTER IV:CHRIS

These days, I was pretty focused on surviving school, despite everything that had happened. 

Alvin and I were eating lunch. So far, everybody was ignoring us, which was better than usual. I just hoped that _he_ didn’t spot us.

Which of course, he did.

Tyler Law was one of those ‘cool’ kids. He was very athletic, tall, handsome, just about everything a typical guy would want. He was also extremely arrogant and sometimes even downright rude. He was pretty smart too, and very persuasive. It was how he became Student Body President.

“Hey, look! It’s the puny Mormon boys!” he laughed, shoving us off the bench. Several people laughed and pointed. “Why don’t you play us a little Mozart? We all know how much you love classical music, after all. Let me tell you, that stuff is trash! A complete waste of time and energy. It’s so boring, how could you stand to listen to that crap? Oh wait, I’m talking to brainless morons who have no taste in music! I don’t think you even understood a word I just said."

Alvin and I said nothing.

“Hey! I’m talking to you! Are you listening?” Tyler snarled.

“Don’t bother with that trash." one of the boys said.

“Hey, you! Classical music, stupid, you, dumb!” another grunted mockingly. The boys laughed again.

‘All in a day’s work.’ I thought sardonically.

After what seemed like hours, the boys released us, leaving us in peace. That was our life, here at Phoenix Junior High. Constant mockery, abuse, bullying, sometimes Alvin and I were beaten and shoved in a locker. One locker, for both of us.

We confronted Cara(who just happened to attend the same school we did. Who knew?) for more information on Jokarts, and she said that we’d have to wait to find out. (We thought that she didn’t know anything else, because, after all, she would be starting her first year at least one year after us.)

The classes passed without much incident. When the last bell rang, Al and I bolted out of the door and made sure we were at a safe distance away from the school before we started walking.

“Today was worse than usual." Alvin said.

“Let’s talk about something else, ” I muttered.

“Right." Alvin said slowly, “So."

“So." I said.

“So." Alvin said.

We laughed. 

“What do you want to talk about?” Alvin asked.

“I don’t know. How is Carnival of the Animals coming along?” I asked.

“Good! I’ve almost finished memorizing my part." Alvin replied.

“That’s good."

“Yes, it is."

Alvin and I understood why those boys hated classical music. We had been raised in a musical family, we grew up attending concerts in various places(summer concerts included pieces our parents composed,) and even now, Katie and Jordan took us to concerts every now and then. We understood music theory, we also understood how difficult it was to write like Mozart, Beethoven, or any other famous classical or modern classical composer. It was the same reason we didn't like most modern music, it was just too simple for our tastes. Music like that had at most a few simple chords, a basic melody, and a very simple harmony, if there was one at all that wasn’t drums or sound effects.

As a team, Alvin and I made it a mission to write an entry piece for that competition that Al found that, while written as a complex orchestral piece, would be cool enough that millions would enjoy it, even people who hated classical music. We kept that in mind as we were composing, and that resulted in the piece we were writing, which we called “A Warrior’s Sorrow." a title which we thought would catch the attention of our audience. 

We wrote a story that would be our guideline to writing the composition. The piece starts with a lone warrior, facing off against a mighty army. He stands without fear, without despair. He charges into the army, fighting one man after the other, sword clashing against sword. As he is fighting, he remembers all that he has lost. His mother, father, and children had all been slaughtered right in front of him. He was forced to watch as his friends were beheaded and hung by the very foe he was fighting, and he is filled with rage. His rage peaks when the army brings out a prisoner, his wife, and kills her right in front of him. He kills many of the soldiers, but eventually, he too is killed by the unstoppable army.

It didn’t take that long for Alvin and I to come up with that story, maybe ten minutes at the most, and we wrote our music to fit that story and to portray the warrior’s feelings as he was facing that impossible enemy. We weren’t done yet, not by a longshot, but we got closer every day. The hours we spent working together have been some of the best of my life, and I wouldn’t trade them for the world. 

Alvin and I decided to take a look around in the attic. We found several old books and diaries(which we didn’t read,) we found old instruments as well, that were still apparently in good condition. There were scrapbooks full of pictures of our grandparents, parents, and even some of us. There were some pictures of people we didn’t recognize. We found one scrapbook with pictures of a young boy that looked oddly familiar, but we couldn’t quite place who he was. The scrapbook had pictures of him growing up, but there weren’t any pictures of his teenage years. 

“Who is he?” I asked out loud.

“You’re asking me?” Alvin said.

“I feel like I’ve met this boy somewhere!” I yelled.

“Yeah, I know, I feel it too, and it’s weird." Alvin said.

“You know what, let’s just forget it, we don’t know who it is and we don’t even know if these pictures are from people who owned the house before Katie and Jordan moved in." I muttered.

“Fair point." Alvin said. 

We decided to go back down to our room, taking the scrapbooks that had pictures of our relatives and ourselves(with permission from our guardians, of course). We looked through them, laughing at some of the memories and crying at others. This was a priceless treasure we had discovered, and we spent a couple hours talking about the pictures and sharing stories with each-other. It was wonderful, really, truly wonderful.

Katie and Jordan went on a dinner date to celebrate their 30th anniversary, leavin Alvin and I alone. About ten minutes after they left, their was a knock on the door. I opened the door and Cara was standing on the other side.

“What is it this time?” I asked.

“You’re not going to like what I have to tell you." Cara said grimly.

“What? What is it?” I asked.

“I went through records of the names of all the people who have been sent invitations to Jokarts Academy of Music."

“And?” Alvin said.

Cara sighed, “Please don’t freak out. On the list was a boy who was named Tyler Law."


	5. CHAPTER V: TYLER

“I’m home dad!” I shouted, closing the door behind me.

“You’re late! Wha’ ‘ave you been doin’?!” My dad slurred. 

Ah. He was drunk. Again.

“I had some stuff to do after school." I replied. Being Student Body President, I had to attend an after school meeting every Monday and Friday.

“‘ave you been givin’ those Mormons wha’ they deserve? Those scumbags, takin’ my wife away from me...”

“Yes, yes, I have." I said impatiently.

My dad turned to face me, “It’s them Mormons! They’ve taken over everythin’! They’ve spread like a disease, and you haven’ done anythin’...”

“Of course I have!” I shouted.

He punched me in the gut. “Don’ lie to me!” he roared. “They should all die! Every last one of ‘em. You know wha’ I think? I think you wan’ to join their little gang...”

“Of course I don’t!” I exclaimed. Why would I want to join them? 

“I think you do!” he roared again, pinning me against the wall, holding me by the neck.

“I swear, I don’t!” I gasped, tears trailing down my cheeks.

He let go, and I fell to the floor, gasping for breath.

“You better mean it! I’m goin’ out fer a drink." he said.

Good. That would give me time to practice. He was usually gone for hours, drinking, gambling, and participating in other adult activities. It was a time where I could be myself, without fear of getting discovered. If my secret got out, I’d be the laughingstock of Phoenix Junior High, I would be in the same boat as those Larson boys.

The Larsons...I rarely thought about them. They were always so cheerful, so optimistic. I hated it. Didn’t they know anything about the world? How black and cold it really was? 

_‘That’s a stupid question,’_ I thought, remembering all the things I’d done to them. 

_'They deserve to be treated like that,’_ a little voice nagged me, _‘they’re Mormons, they belong to the religion that tore apart your parents. Besides, treating them like you do is a good way to relieve stress. Make them suffer as you suffer at the hands of your father...’_

_‘But is it right?’_ a part of me I never knew existed shot back, _‘Up until now, I haven’t really thought about the reasons for what I’ve been doing, and they haven’t done anything to hurt me, even after a semester of constant bullying and abuse!’_

_‘But think about your social status! You’re popular, you’re Student Body President for crying out loud! If you were to suddenly start defending Mormons, you’d lose all of that.’_ that voice whispered.

_‘Yeah, I suppose that‘s true,’_ I conceded. 

I decided to get the mail before I started to practice. Most of the letters were everyday things; bills, ads, et cetera, but one letter caught my attention. It was sealed with an old fashioned purple wax crest, with a big letter ‘J’ engraved on the seal. It was addressed to me. Curious, I opened the letter.

Dear Mr. Law,  
 _You have been invited to attend Jokarts Academy of Music. You are receiving this invitation because you are gifted in one or more areas of music. Term starts August 1st, please find enclosed a list of your supplies. An email has been sent to your father stating that you were invited to one of the best boarding school in the US. The decision is entirely up to you, we have been informed of your father’s behaviors, and as such, he has no authority over what you decide to do. This school has been considered the best in the world for music education, very few have been invited to attend this school as you have. Please choose wisely. If you choose to accept, please send an email to jokartsacademy@gmail.com._  
 _Mary and Xander Regalds, Headmasters_

Was this some sort of joke? How could they know about my father? I never told anyone! 

_‘If this isn’t a joke,’_ I thought, _‘This could be my opportunity to get away from Phoenix Junior High to do something I actually want to do! I could follow in my mother’s footsteps, I wouldn’t have to worry about being popular or anything like that.’_

_‘But being popular has always been the way you roll, you love the feeling of having power over other, weaker people than you,’_ the little voice whispered.

_‘Yes, I do, but what would my mother want me to do? If I were given the option of doing what I love most, I think she would want me to go after it, no matter what!’_

_‘Who cares about what your mother would want? You have friends here, and you’d just abandon them...’_

_‘I don’t know who you’re talking about, because I don’t have any real friends at Phoenix Junior High! I’m alone, truly alone. I’m not unwanted, but I’m alone. This is an opportunity of a lifetime, and I am not about to pass it up!’_

I’d never had an internal battle like that one before. I wondered why I was feeling the way I did. This school felt right, like I knew I belonged there. 

I reached under my bed and pulled out a locked chest. My dad had no idea what was in this thing, and I intended to keep it that way. I didn’t want anyone to find out what was in there. I pulled the key out of my pocket and inserted it into the lock. The chest clicked and I lifted the top. Inside were several programs that I kept from musicals I had been part of. I spent the first ten years of my life raised by my aunt and uncle, and they supported the development of my musical talents, I lived with them because my dad was in jail for physical and sexual abuse of his wife. 

_‘I forgot about that! How could I forget about something like that?’_ I wondered, 

“No wonder Mom left." I said out loud.

I pulled out one of the programs. It read, Broadway Junior Production of Les Miserables.  
There were several cast members listed before my name, and when I got to it, I smiled fondly. Tyler Law: red cast:Javert, blue cast: Jean Valjean. Those had been really fun times. _‘Those concerts are probably on YouTube somewhere! I should go listen to them sometime,’_ I thought.

There were several others: Broadway Junior Production of Phantom of the Opera; I played the Phantom in both casts of that particular play, Broadway Junior Production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; I was a choir member in the red cast(the cast that performed Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), and I played Joseph in the blue cast(the cast that performed every other day), Broadway Junior Production of Fiddler on the Roof; I played Tevye in both casts.

“Those were the best days of my life,’” I whispered, a hint of sorrow in my voice, “and they disappeared when my dad was released from prison." 

I put the programs back in the chest, and closed it, locking it up again. I practiced my singing for a couple of hours before going online, deciding to dig up some information about my mother. I scrolled through the pages, reading the descriptions, when I came across a rather interesting webpage.

The description read; The Personal Online Diary of Angela Richfield Larson: I hope that by sharing some of my personal experiences, including my divorce with Frank Law, I can help people avoid making the same mistakes that I made.

I clicked it, curiousity eating away at me. I knew that mom had remarried a Mormon, but I didn’t know that the Mormon had the last name of Larson. 

“It’s probably a different Larson." I told myself.

When the site loaded, I was greeted with a bright, flowery patterns on a pink background. The text was black, and there were several different pictures of various events. One picture in particular caught my eye. 

_‘My mother is beautiful,’_ I thought, _‘Wait, how did I know she was my mother? I’ve never met her! I've never even seen a picture!’_

She had long, blond hair(like mine, except mine wasn’t that long) and the brightest smile. The only other people I could think of who smiled like that were those Larson boys at school. The man she was standing next too was unfamiliar to me. He had brown hair, and he wore glasses. They were both standing in front of the most beautiful building I had ever laid my eyes on, the man was dressed in a tux and my mother was dressed in a white wedding dress.

I saw the first entry, titled: _Why I divorced with Frank Law and remarried a Mormon._

The entry read: _When I met Frank, he seemed like he was a good man. He was a lawyer, funnily enough, and one of the best at his job, too. He supported my singing and even requested to have singing lessons from me._

_So what changed?_

_Frank started drinking. It wasn’t bad, at first, but it got worse as time went on. He started shouting at me, and we got into more and more fights. Eventually, he started hitting me, and he even forced himself onto me once(he wasn’t drunk at the time, thank goodness, my child would have suffered from major health issues if that were the case,) which resulted in me bearing a beautiful son by the name of Tyler. I filed for divorce in secret, and the court, after reviewing my case, approved within the week after my son was born. So we divorced, and I left. I attempted to take Tyler with me, but the court wouldn’t let me, because I was single and wouldn’t have the financial necessities to take care of him._

_I met John Larson not too long after that, and it was almost like love at first sight. He was the sweetest man I’d ever met, but he was also Mormon. I’d never heard of the LDS church before then, and I started taking discussions from the missionaries and eventually got baptized. John and I got married not very long after that._

_John is a composer. I’m a singer. The result? He wrote lots of songs for me, and I sang them. We toured around the world, different groups offered us free transportation and hotel rooms, because we most definitely were not rich. I sang with various orchestras and he conducted._

_Our tours came to an abrupt end after we discovered that I was pregnant. We were very excited about this news, and we used the money we earned from touring to buy ourselves a modest home. After coming home from the ultrasound, I discovered that I was pregnant with not one, but two children, twin boys, to be exact. After thinking for a while, John and I decided on names for these two boys;_

Christopher and Alvin Larson. 

When I read that, my fingers froze over the mouse. 

_‘I’ve been bullying my half-brothers. Oh gosh, what have I done? There’s no way they’ll forgive me, especially after the little incident today!’_ I thought dismally. 

My thoughts switched gears, _‘Maybe Mormons aren’t so bad, my mother sounds like a wonderful woman. Dad, no, Frank has always claimed that she left because the Mormons persuaded her to join their church and abandon him, but after reading her take on it, that’s not what happened at all! She joined the Mormons after she divorced Frank, and she divorced him for a pretty darn good reason._

_‘What would have happened if Frank had continued to treat my mom with the respect she deserved? Would Chris and Alvin still be alive? How would my life have been different? Would Chris and Alvin be my full-brothers instead of my half-brothers?’_ (I paid no attention to the fact that I called them by their first names. Twice.) 

I closed the browser and turned off the computer. I stood up shakily and went downstairs to get a drink of water and clear my head. What I had just learned changed the way I saw everything. For once, I felt like I could see clearly, and not act on blind impulse and rage. A strange feeling overcame me and I grinned. Not a leering, maniacal grin like I had when I was bullying people, it was one filled with happiness and joy that I hadn’t felt for years. I had something that I hadn’t had before, something worth losing a bit of popularity over, something worth fighting for. 

Hope. 

I had hope for a real family, hope to get out of this prison of a house, hope to get away from Frank and start a new life.  
First came the easy part, reporting Frank. The court stated that if they ever caught wind of his physical abuse again, they wouldn’t hesitate in sentencing him to life in prison without possibility of parole. He had done enough against me that I thought it was finally time to take action. So I called the police, smirking satisfactorily as I gave them a complete description of what he looked like. When Frank came home, he would find the police waiting for him, and if all went well, I would start a new life with Alvin and Chris. 

But there was still the hard part. Apologizing. I was afraid that they would reject me, that they would turn their backs on me and leave me. I knew I couldn’t change overnight, but this was a huge step in that process. If I admitted wrongdoing, if I approached them and begged for their forgiveness, then maybe, just maybe, I would be accepted by them, and I was willing to take that chance.

If I recalled correctly, the reason they were in Arizona was because their parents had been killed in a car crash and they had been sent to live with their aunt and uncle(at least that what the teacher said during their introductions at the beginning of the year).   
My eyes widened as I realized what that meant. 

_‘Mom,’ I thought, ‘I wish I could have known you before you died. I wish I could have been with you more and I wish I could have heard you sing at least once in person,’_ tears trailed down my cheeks as I realized how much pain Alvin and Chris were in even before they came to school. I would bet everything I had that the pain I felt right now was nothing compared to the pain that came from losing their mother and father after living with them for as long as they did, and I made it worse. From what I knew, they’d been here for a couple years, but they attended a different school, and I bet they transferred because bullying was bad there as well. Why couldn’t I stop thinking? It was just making me feel worse. 

The police came about five minutes after I made the call, and they waited for about two hours before Frank finally came home. He was immediately arrested and I was told to wait for further instruction that would come later tomorrow, well, later today, it was about one thirty in the morning, so I decided to get some sleep before school tomorrow.

I woke about six hours after that, and I groggily got out of bed and into the shower. Today was going to be the start of a new relationship between the Larson twins, and I didn’t have any intentions of backing down. I had already gotten Frank arrested, and I formed a plan to apologize. I would stick an anonymous note on their lockers telling them to meet me at my house(I would write the address) after school, and I would write that I had something interesting to show them. 

And if that didn’t work, I could always show up at their house, and say hi to Katie and Jordan before or after I apologized(unless, of course, they weren’t there).

Either way, I was going to apologize, and nothing would stop me.


	6. CHAPTER VI: ALVIN

Today was _supposed_ to be an ordinary day.

Chris and I woke up at the usual time, went through our usual morning routine to get ready for school, and we came to expect the worst after yesterday.

I found a note on my locker, addressed to both Chris and I. It read:

_Come to this address after school. I have something interesting I want to show you. Don’t worry, this is not a threat._

The address given was about a ten minute walk from where we lived. We didn’t recognize the handwriting, though something about the note felt familiar.

“What do you think?” Chris asked me.

“I don’t know." I said honestly, “but for some strange reason, I feel like we should do it."

“You feel it too, huh?” Chris asked.

“Yep." I said.

Tyler Law was acting strangely today. In class, his eyes would wander and eventually settle on either Chris or me, and he would get a strange look on his face and turn away. This happened several times. During lunch, he walked past us, stopped for a minute, like he wanted to say something, shook his head and sat down on the opposite end of the table, away from his ‘friends’, who were at a different table on the other end of the Commons. Both Chris and I knew he was bothered about something. It was almost like he was nervous about something. 

“Tyler’s been acting weirdly today." I whispered to Chris.

“I noticed." Chris replied sarcastically, after swallowing a mouthful of spaghetti.

“What do you think he’s thinking about?” I asked.

“I don’t know." Chris sighed.

“Do you think it was him who put the note on our locker?” I asked.

“Maybe. But if it was him, why would he do something like that? Is it some sort of trap? Or is he...” Chris trailed off

“Going to apologize?” I offered.

My brother gave me a strange look, then he burst out laughing, the water he was drinking spewing from his mouth. 

“What would drive him to suddenly do something like that?!” he asked.

“It’s just the way he’s been acting, he’s being nicer than he used to be, and he’s actually sitting at the same table as us." I replied

“Now that you mention it...” Chris trailed off, glancing at Tyler.

“If he does apologize, will you forgive him?” I asked.

“Of course! If it’s a true, sincere apology, why wouldn’t I? People can change, and if Tyler wants to be friends with us, why would I stop him?” Chris replied.

“That’s good." I breathed. 

“Would you?” Chris asked me.

“Yes I would, in a heartbeat." I said.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because it would be a nice change." I said.

“I know what you mean." Chris sighed.

“You know, I think we’re too trusting for our own good." I muttered. 

“You’re probably right." Chris said.

The end of school came, and with some difficulty, we managed to find our way to the designated meeting area. When we   
arrived, we looked around and discovered that this place was deserted.

“The police were here last night." a familiar voice said from behind us.

We turned around, and Tyler Law was standing about ten feet away from us, looking down at his shoes.  
Chris and I looked at each other. 

“Why?” I asked.

“A man was arrested." Tyler said bitterly, still refusing to look at us. 

“Were you the one who wrote the note?” Chris asked. 

Tyler nodded mutely. 

“Why?” I asked.

Tyler looked up, “I, um, kind of, ah, wanted to, um apologize for the way I’ve been treating you." he said, choking up. “My actions over the past semester have been a cause of great pain to you, and I want to do everything I can to make up for the things I’ve said and done.” tears were running down Tyler’s cheeks as he was talking.

Chris and I shared a look. “We accept your apology." we said unanimously.

“You mean it?” Tyler looked hopeful.

In response, I ran to him and hugged him, and to my shock, Tyler grinned and hugged me back. 

“I take that as a yes." he said happily. 

‘What on earth caused this sudden change in attitude towards us?!’ I thought, both happy and incredulous.

“I have two things I wanted to show you two, would you mind following me?” Tyler asked.

Tyler led us inside the house, and up the stairs. He opened the second door on the left and walked in.

“This is my room." Tyler explained, “I’m about to show you something I’ve never shown to anyone, something that is very special to me."

Tyler reached under his bed and pulled out a chest. He pulled a key out of his pocket and inserted it into the lock, twisting it to the right. There was a small click, and Tyler opened the chest. Inside were four programs from various musicals.

“I was in all five of these musicals years ago, and I played lead roles in all of them." Tyler explained.

“So that’s why...” Chris trailed off.

“What?” Tyler asked.

“Did you by chance get an invitation to Jokarts Academy of Music?” I asked.

“Yes, I did, but how do you know about that place?” Tyler asked.

“We were invited to go as well." Chris explained.

Tyler shook his head, “Of course." he muttered, “There’s one more thing I wanted to show you." Tyler gestured to the computer in his room, “Just let me pull it up."

He turned on his computer and logged in. He pulled up the website he read through yesterday. “Coming across this website is what really changed my attitude towards you and Mormons." he said, “I’ll let you two read it."

Chris sat down and I read over his shoulder. When we saw the website’s title, our eyes widened in shock.

“No way...” I whispered.

“That’s definitely our mother!” Chris exclaimed, “That was when she married John at the Salt Lake City Temple."

“So that’s what that building was." Tyler muttered.

“The Mormon temples are some of the most beautiful building on the planet, especially on the inside." I said.

“What he said." Chris murmured.

“Let’s read this article." I suggested.

“I had no idea mom was married before she met John...” Chris muttered, reading the title of the page again.

“The man she was married to was named Frank Law?” I asked.

“Apparently. Why?” Chris asked. 

I gestured to Tyler. My brother’s eyes widened marginally. 

“Oh." he said eloquently.

Tyler waved awkwardly. “Hello." he said, smiling.

“You, y-y-you’re really." I said.

Tyler nodded. “Read the rest of the article." he said.

So we did.

“THAT SCUMBAG!!!” Chris and I yelled at the same time when we got to the part where it described how Tyler was conceived.

“He’s gone now." Tyler whispered, “He’ll be in jail for the rest of his life."

“Did he hurt you?” I asked gently.

Tyler nodded. “After he was released from jail the first time, he took me home from Katie and Jordan’s place and made one thing very clear to me. He said that it was the Mormon’s fault that mom left, and that if I ever joined them, he’d kill me. I spent the last years of my childhood believing that it was the Mormons’ fault Frank was so angry and upset all the time, and as a result I hated them with all my heart. Even though I swore to never join that church, Frank still beat me and di-did other things to me." he swallowed thickly.

Chris and I didn’t press for details. We didn’t want to force Tyler to relive something like that. No wonder he was so bitter towards Chris and I.

“So you’re really our brother. Our older brother." Chris said, grinning.

Tyler nodded. 

Both Chris and I tackled him in a hug. Tyler put his arms around us, gently massaging our backs. We could tell that this was the   
happiest he’d ever been during his whole life, and that made us happy as well.

“We’ve got something we want to show you as well." I said, suddenly realizing who the mystery boy in the scrapbook was.

Chris’s eyes widened as he realized what I was talking about.

“What is it?” Tyler asked, intrigued.

“Follow us!” Chris and I chorused.

We lead Tyler to our house. Tyler grinned when he saw the building. 

“It’s been years since I was last here!” he said.

We opened the door. “Katie, Jordan, we’re home! And we brought someone with us you might recognize!” I yelled.

“Who is...Tyler? Is that you?” Katie asked, her eyes wide in shock.

“It’s been a long time." Tyler said awkwardly.

“Look at you, you’ve grown! How do you know these boys?”

“We go to the same school." I replied.

“That’s wonderful! Have you been able to do any more musicals since the last time I saw you?” Katie grinned.

Tyler looked down. “Frank was too busy beating me up to let me do things like that."

“Your father did that to you?!” Katie asked, shocked.

“He’s recently been rearrested. The police are still trying to figure out what to do...” Tyler’s phone rang, “Hello?” he said. Tyler grinned, “It’s the police." he mouthed, “Really? I can live with them?! That’s great! Oh...no I won’t be attending that, I don’t want to have anything to do with him. No, really, I don’t. Just do it without me. If you want, I can present my side of the case right now. Okay, so here’s what happened...” he described some of the incidents of Frank’s abuse, “If you want, I can send videos. I had cameras secretly hidden all over the house, which were given to me by a friend, filming everything that happened while Frank was home. You want them? I’ll get them to you by Friday. Thank you.” Tyler hung up. 

“I’m moving in!” he grinned.

“That’s wonderful!” I beamed.

“What was it you two were going to show me?” Tyler asked, changing the subject.

“Right. That. To the attic!” Chris pointed dramatically.

“To the attic!” I echoed.

“You boys be careful!” Katie yelled as we made our way to the attic.

“We will!” the three of us chorused.

We headed up to the attic. Chris and I were really eager to see Tyler’s reaction to this gift. We had been on the receiving end of possibly the greatest gift that the world had to offer. Now that we knew the truth about Tyler, and especially now that he was living with us, we would make sure we’d always look out for him, and we knew he’d do the same thing for us. It was a very unique bond, at first it was one of mutual hate and anguish, but in just one day everything had changed, and now it was bond of mutual trust, friendship, and brotherly love.

When we got to the attic, we had to spend a bit of time searching through the scrapbooks before we found the right one. 

“We found this while roaming through our attic. We didn’t know who the pictures were of, but for some reason we felt like we had met somewhere before. Little did we know...” Chris trailed off.

“You’re saying that those are pictures...of me?” Tyler asked slowly, a huge smile forming on his lips.

“We believe so.” I nodded.

Chris held out the scrapbook, and Tyler took it, opening it. His eyes widened and he looked at us, his expression full of gratitude.

“I have no words...thank you." he swallowed. He put it down and pulled us into a tight hug.

“So, what are the pictures of?” I asked when he released us. 

Tyler beamed, opening the book again. “This one here was taken when Katie took me to a carnival in the area, that one was  
taken after my performance in Phantom of the Opera, this one over here...”

And he described all of the pictures, some of which had pretty interesting stories behind them, others were pictures of Tyler participating in various activities like fishing, swimming, camping, and boating. Some were pictures of his birthday parties, and in one he had cake and frosting smashed all over his three year old face, which made us laugh.

We came out of the attic after about two hours. Tyler needed to grab his belongings from his old house and move them over here, so Jordan decided to help him by driving his truck to Tyler’s old house and letting him use it to put all his stuff in. We went as well, and Tyler’s move took about half an hour. Chris and I took Tyler to our room.

“I’ve been thinking...” Tyler began.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I want to take the missionary discussions." Tyler declared.

Chris and I grinned. “That’s great!” we said. 

“So how do I do it?” Tyler asked.

“Let Al and I take care of that bit." Chris said.

Jordan took the three of us to RC Willey to buy a bunk bed so that all three of us could sleep in the same room. We stayed up until about 11 assembling it.

We played rock-paper-scissors to determine who would sleep on the top of the bunk bed. Tyler won, and Chris decided to sleep on the bottom, leaving me to sleep on the single bed.

“You know, this all seems too good to be true...” Tyler said, his arms behind his head as he stared at the ceiling.

“What do you mean?” Chris asked.

“I guess I just stopped believing that good things could happen to me." Tyler replied, “I don’t really know how to explain it, everything has changed for me in the blink of an eye. It’s like I broke   
out of the shell I created during all those years I lived with Frank, and, I don’t know, it just feels like a dream.”

“Well, it’s not. You’re here, you have us." I said softly.

“It’s funny. I’m supposed to be the older brother, and yet I look up to you two, you two are just...good people. Better than I ever was.” Tyler mumbled.

“You’re a good person, Tyler. The actions you took today prove that more than anything. I think you’re the bravest person Al and I have had the fortune to meet.”

“Do you really believe that?” Tyler asked.

“We know it.” I stated.

“Thank you.” Tyler whispered.

“Good night, Ty, Al.” Chris mumbled sleepily.

“Good night, Chris.” Tyler and I replied.

I looked at Tyler. It was hard to tell in the darkness, but I thought I saw tears trailing down his cheeks. I got up and sat next to him.

"You okay?"

Tyler smiled, "I'm really happy, Al."

"So am I, Ty. So am I."


	7. CHAPTER VII:TYLER

The people at school didn’t react the way I thought they would when they found out I was investigating the LDS Church.

I thought that it would make me lose popularity and I would be in the same boat as Chris and Alvin. I would have been fine with that.

As it turns out, I had enough influence, being Student Body President, that I actually caused a lot of people to start asking my younger brothers questions about the Mormons. Chris and Alvin were giving out a lot of cards that had the missionaries’ phone number.

It had been two weeks since I started taking the discussions, and I was going to get baptized tomorrow, and I was excited. Really excited.

“Who do you want to attend tomorrow?” Alvin asked me.

“I don’t want it to be a huge affair. You and Chris for sure, along with Katie and obviously Jordan." Jordan was going to be the one baptizing me, “The missionaries who taught me are obviously   
going to be there as well.”

My brothers and I talked about that power thing that Cara mentioned to them(they told me about it). There haven’t really been many incidents with me, but Alvin’s kind of freaked me out.

Okay, there was one incident, about three days ago, when I was walking with my brothers to the arcade, when we were attacked by street thugs. They dragged us into an alleyway and one of them stuck a knife to Chris’s throat and demanded money. I grabbed his wrist, rage pounding through my veins. The constant beating of drums filled the sky. Chris and Alvin heard it too, I could tell because of the look on their faces. Then the strangest thing happened.

The drumming stopped.

It was replaced with a sort of sweet, melodic flute solo with a string accompaniment. I looked around and saw a strange woman looking at us, her hands moving in a sort of conducting pattern. The thugs simply walked away, and the woman disappeared into the crowd. It was something I my brothers discussed a lot. We all had different theories on who the woman could be. Chris claimed the she was an alien with powers that were very similar to our own, except that she could disappear and reappear at will. 

I told Chris that he’d watched too much Doctor Who when he suggested that theory, and he glared at me playfully, replying; “...it's a perfectly plausible idea, and you can never watch too much Doctor Who!” Alvin and I thought that she was simply a woman who attended Jokarts that happened to be passing through the area.

The day of my baptism came and went. It was the second best day of my life(the first was the day I moved in with the twins, of course). Jordan cooked a really delicious lunch on the grill to celebrate. Chris and Alvin had finished working on their composition for that competition they were entering, and they asked me to give an opinion on it. It was the first time I’d heard anything instrumental in years(aside from the occasional musical), and I loved it! I told them that they had a pretty good chance of winning, and they beamed at me, saying that they composed it to reflect a short story they wrote. 

The school year ended about two weeks after my baptism. Once summer came, I went through the process of legally changing my last name to Larson, which would seem like a silly thing to do for most, but I didn’t want any attachment to Frank, and that included his surname. Besides, Tyler Larson had kind of a nice ring to it, in my opinion.

Katie and Jordan were going to take us camping for a week. I could barely remember the last time I was taken anywhere to do something fun. We were going to do things like hiking, swimming in a lake, rafting, eating marshmallows around a campfire. It would be my first vacation with my younger brothers, and I was stoked.

At the moment, my brothers and I were in our room. We were all sitting on Alvin’s bed, talking.

“Ty." Chris began.

“Yes?” I replied.

“Do you really hate classical music?” he asked.

“Not anymore."

Alvin and Chris grinned. “Finally!” they chorused.

“Who’s your favorite composer?” Chris asked. 

“I don’t know. I like Gershwin a lot, though I supposed he doesn’t really count as classical. Holst was pretty good too, along with Saint-Saëns, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky... there are so many to choose from!” I said.

“You actually know those names!” Alvin gasped in fake shock, clutching his chest.

Chris and I laughed.

“I’m really glad I gained an appreciation for classical music. Once you start liking it, there is so much to choose from, so much diversity, so many different combinations of instruments and interesting ways to use those instruments. I’m glad you guys taught me how to compose, as well."

“You’re a pretty good composer, Ty. You picked up the basics really quickly. It took Al and I months before we got to the point that you’re at. You reached that point in what, two weeks?” Chris asked.

“Something like that," I said,“So. Camping."

“What about it?” Alvin replied.

“Are you guys excited?” I asked.

“Of course! Why wouldn’t we be?!” Chris and Alvin asked incredulously.

“Where are we going again?” I asked.

“We’re going over to Bear Lake." Alvin replied.

“It’s a favorite vacation spot of Katie and Jordan’s." Chris continued.

“But it’s been awhile since they’ve been, because they-." Alvin grinned. 

“Were busy-” Chris said.

“Taking care of us-” Alvin continued.

“And they weren’t sure-” 

“If we liked that sort of stuff-” 

“As we’ve been pretty shy until just recently-

“Not to mention it takes twelve hours to drive there-” 

“And we never talked about it." Alvin and Chris finished at the same time.  
Chris and Alvin looked at each other.   
“We should do that- Chris started, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

“More often? Yeah, I thought so too." Alvin smirked evilly.

“How did you get cameras? I mean, if your father was that abusive...” Chris trailed off, changing the subject.

“I had a friend, back before you guys came, that knew about my situation and also happened to have a lot of money. He bought me two good cameras for each room, and I placed them in locations that had the best view of what was going on, and yet remain unnoticed by Frank. I set them up while Frank was away at one of his ‘parties,’” I replied.

“What happened to this friend?” Alvin asked.

“He was in 9th grade while I was in 7th. He graduated from Phoenix Junior High the same year I started. We still keep in contact. He’s really nice, I should introduce you two to him sometime." I grinned

“Lunch is ready!” Katie called from upstairs. The three of us bolted up the stairs, making sure we didn’t accidentally run into things as we rushed to our seats at the table. Jordan laughed at this display.

“Hungry?” he asked.

The three of us nodded eagerly, grinning from ear to ear.

“Well, I made sloppy joes for you today." Jordan gestured to the platter on the table, “and Katie made some of that homemade slush you guys really like. We will eat after the prayer." Jordan said sternly as I reached for one of the sandwiches. I grinned innocently as I withdrew my hand, resting it at my side. 

“Are you guys ready for Monday?” Jordan asked after they prayer had been said.

“Yes!” We chorused, beaming. Monday was they day we were leaving for Bear Lake.

“What are you guys most excited about?” Jordan asked, smiling.

“Sitting around a campfire, talking to each other and roasting marshmallows." I replied.

“Same here." Chris and Alvin agreed.

“There is something about sitting around a campfire that’s, I don’t know if this is the right word, special. Magical, even." Jordan grinned.

“Yes, well it will take a little over twelve hours to drive there. Why can’t we find someplace else to go here in the state?” Katie asked.

“Like what, the Grand Canyon? There really isn’t much to do here in Arizona." Chris muttered.

“Why don’t we do Barlett Lake?” I asked.

“I’ve arranged for something special at Bear Lake." Jordan grinned.

My eyes widened slightly. So that’s why Jordan asked for...well Chris and Alvin weren’t going to be disappointed.

“But twelve hours?! In the car?!” Chris yelped.

“Don’t worry! You’ll have plenty of books, and you’ll have each-other to talk too." Jordan attempted to reassure him.

“I don’t think anyone is capable of keeping a conversation going for twelve hours." I muttered.

“But you have books, and your iPods! Don’t forget about those!” Jordan replied, his voice getting higher.

“Whoopee." Alvin murmured sarcastically.

“And your laptops, you can compose music on the way!” Jordan was getting desperate. 

“That’s true." I muttered, Chris and Alvin nodding in agreement. 

Then we laughed. 

Jordan stared at us, confused.

“Don’t worry, we don’t mind. Traveling in a car isn’t that bad, at least we aren’t walking. That would take days." I grinned.

“And we wouldn’t exactly be able to pull out a laptop while walking or biking, now would we?” Alvin continued.

“Especially while biking." Chris agreed. 

Katie and Jordan laughed at our antics.

“It seems you boys have been a little bit more mischievous than usual." Katie shook her head.

“What’s wrong with that? I mean, as long as we don’t hurt anyone, having a bit of fun is good!” I replied.

Katie leaned over to Jordan and said in a stage whisper, “It’s almost like they know what the others are going to say. It’s creepy."

“We heard that!” my brothers and I chorused.

Katie just grinned.

My brothers and I decided to head over to the arcade. When we got there, Alvin challenged Chris and I to a race, and we accepted. We were driving like madmen, knocking over virtual cones and crashing into other virtual cars. We had a blast! We were heading over to the laser tag arena when we overheard a rather interesting conversation.

“First years at Jokarts are lucky! They don’t have to ride the train to get to Jokarts, like the rest of us...” one of the guys was saying.  
What song did they use to transport you?” Another asked.

“They used Rhapsody in Blue. I would have preferred Concerto in F, but ah well." the first replied.

“I heard that they were using Jupiter this year." another guy said. 

“You heard correctly." the first guy muttered, inserting a token into the deer hunt game he was standing next too.

“Is it true that Anthos attacked a small town not too far from here?" the second guy said.

“Yeah, he did. The weird thing was that he didn’t kill anyone." the first guy replied, aiming carefully at an elk.

“Then how do we even know he was there?” the third guy asked.

“That’s what I called you here to Arizona for, isn’t it? Pay attention next time you get a mission, Ralph." the first guy muttered.

“You didn’t exactly explain the mission all that well, Felix. All you told me was to come to Arizona as quickly as possible." Ralph replied, the other guy nodding in agreement.

The timer on Felix’s game ran out. Felix put the gun back on the console, and turned to face Ralph. 

“Oh. Oops, my bad." he grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

“Hey, didn’t you put an Ephorical Filter to prevent people who don’t know have Ephora to hear what we’re saying?” the second guy asked.

“Of course I did! Why wouldn’t I, Zack?” Felix replied

“I’m just saying that because those three," he gestured to us, “Are watching us like hawks."

Felix looked at us, and waved. He motioned for us to come to him.

So we did.

“You boys know about Jokarts?” Felix asked.

The three of us nodded.

“I suppose since I haven’t seen you at school before that means that you’re first years, am I correct?” he questioned.  
We grinned and nodded.

Felix laughed. “My name is Felix, and these are my friends Zack and Ralph." he gestured to them. 

“My name is Tyler, and these are my younger brothers Alvin and Chris." I said.

“How do you tell them apart?!” Felix asked, analyzing my brothers.

“I honestly don’t know, I just can." I replied, scratching the back of my head, embarrassed.

“Ah. Their music is slightly different. Unnoticeable to most, but for somebody like myself...” Felix trailed off, a hint of pride in his voice.

“What do you mean?” Chris asked.

“My Ephora allows me to analyze the music that people have. Although I can’t read minds, I can usually tell what the personality of the person I’m analysing is like, and I can identify people I’ve met before by the music I hear from them, no matter how they look. It is impossible to truly mimic another person’s music, although it is possible to cover up your own music with somebody else’s." Felix explained, “You three have got to be some of the kindest, most honest people I’ve met. You also have a flare for pranking. I think I like you." he grinned.

Zack leaned over to us, “Wow. You’ve managed to impress him already, and we’ve barely known you for twenty seconds. You three must be something special." he stage whispered.

Felix clapped Zack and Ralph on their backs. “Well, that’s enough chit chat for now. We’ve got ourselves a musical version of Voldemort to find! Come on Zacky Boy, Ralpho!”

“Will you stop referencing Harry Potter or any other media for just one day?” Ralph groaned.

“I thought I told you not to call me Zacky Boy!” Zack protested.

“Well, I suppose Anthos does have a nose, so we can’t really compare him to Voldemort...” Felix put his hand to his forehead, pretending to be in deep thought.

“Let’s just go!” Ralph and Zack groaned unanimously. 

“Right, see you three at Jokarts!” Felix grinned, waving at us.

We stood there for about five minutes after they left, gaping in shock.

“What just happened?” Chris muttered.

“You tell me, bro...” Alvin whispered.

“We didn’t ask them about Anthos." I informed my brothers.

“He’s probably some evil maniac bent on taking over the world.” Alvin rolled his eyes.

“Probably." I said.

“Let’s go play some laser tag." Chris said.

“You know you can’t win against me." I said, smirking.

“You wanna bet?” Alvin grinned.

“Game on! Tyler vs. Alvin vs. me!” Chris declared.

Chris won the first round, I won the second, Alvin won the third, and we got three-way ties in the fourth and fifth rounds. How we managed the ties, I don’t know, but we had a lot of fun! Chris got a call from Jordan telling him it was time to head home for dinner. Was it really that late? We were only at the arcade for about half an hour, right? Well, at least that’s what it felt like. We haven’t taken a test or anything, but I was pretty sure the three of us had ADHD. Time flew by while we were doing something exciting, but if we were doing something incredibly boring, the hours dragged by like a snail pulling a train.

It took us about five minutes to walk to our house. It took us about thirty minutes to eat dinner, and we decided to head to our room and talk for a bit before going to bed.

The next day was Sunday. We talked to Cara about the train that run to Jokarts, and she explained the system. Apparently, there were train stations hidden all over the world, which only Jokarts students could access. The trains were run by a type of energy known as Ephora, which is basically the stuff that music is made out of. She explained that all musicians had some degree of control over Ephora, but only a few were born with the energy running through their veins. The people who did have Ephora had the ability to do incredible things, ranging from analyzing people’s personalities to telekinetic like abilities to exerting small degrees of control over others, and that wasn’t even half of what they could do.

Sunday ended without much incident. We spent the rest of the afternoon packing because we were going to head out early tomorrow morning. When we finished packing, we ate a quick dinner and went our room, exhausted.

“Tonight’s going to be our last night sleeping on our regular beds for a while." I said, lying down. Every night, we’d take turns sleeping on the bunk bed, and tonight was my night on the single. Alvin had the top and Chris had the bottom of the bunk bed.

“You going to miss them?” Alvin asked me.

“Not really." I replied.

“I hope we get to sleep under the stars." Chris mumbled, his hands behind the back of his head.

“The weather is supposed to be pretty good over the next week, so we should be able to." Alvin replied, gazing at the ceiling.

“I wonder what that special thing is that Jordan planned." Chris muttered.

“How am I supposed to know?” Alvin asked sleepily.

“Fair point. Good night."

“Good night." Alvin and I murmured.

We woke up at about five in the morning. We ate a quick breakfast, and left at about five thirty. We spent the first hour of the drive up trying to sleep, but none of us could sleep while in a vehicle   
of any kind, so after that hour I decided to try and start a conversation.

“Do you guys sing at all?” I asked. I had always been curious, but for some reason, I always forgot to bring it up.

“Yeah! We do." Chris replied. 

“We haven’t been in any official musicals or anything like you have, but we have sung in things like sacrament meeting and parties." Alvin supplied.

“I’d like to hear you guys sing sometime!” I grinned.

“Hey Katie! Do you still have those recordings?” Chris asked.

“Of course I do." Katie said.

“Would you mind putting one of them on?” 

“No problem!”

“Recordings?” I asked.

“Yeah, Katie made recordings of us singing popular songs from various musicals." Chris grinned.

“Like...?”

“You’ll see." Chris and Alvin chorused.

We spent the next two hours listening to Chris and Alvin sing(I asked Katie to hit the replay button a couple times). I thought that they did a really good job, and I told them that they should think about auditioning for parts, because Broadway would really love voices as good as good as theirs. This led to discussing ideas for the musical we were planning on writing, which took the rest of the car trip.

We got to Bear Lake at about six thirty in the evening. The first thing we did when we got there was decide a place to set the tarps up. Jordan left my brothers and I to set it up, as he went and ‘got dinner ready,’. It took us about ten minutes to get the tarp spread out and to get the stakes driven into the ground.

When we got back, we noticed Jordan talking to people. My brother’s eyes widened as they realized what exactly Jordan had in mind.

“I think that’s Nick’s parents!” Alvin said.

“How did Jordan get their email address?” Chris asked.

I whistled innocently. Alvin and Chris whipped around to face me. 

“You gave it to them?” they asked simultaneously. 

“Yeah! Along with Rachel’s, Hope’s, and Sam’s." I replied, grinning.

“And you didn’t tell us?” Alvin demanded.

“Jordan made me swear not to tell you." I replied.

“We all know how much you hate surprises, Al, Chris, but come on, can’t you at least say hi?” Nick’s voice asked from behind us.

The three of us turned and found all four of my brothers’ friends, grinning like the Cheshire Cat had discovered Christmas.

Alvin and Chris once described their personalities to me. Apparently, Nick was one of those people who would let everyone know the minute he walked into a room. It was almost impossible to keep him quiet. He was a pretty darn good singer as well.

Sam was more quiet. He had a pretty strange sense of humor. He played the guitar and he was a math whiz. Other than that, Chris and Alvin said that it was pretty hard to describe his personality. He was sort of a wild card, you never knew what was going to come out of his mouth.

Hope was more of a quiet, hyper person. Normally, those two attributes wouldn’t fit together, but it seemed like Hope was an exception to that. Whenever she talked, everyone around her listened. She was a really good flute player, as well.  
Rachel was just plain hyper. She would often say random things, and she was pretty much always cheerful. She always had something to say about whatever we were talking about, as well. 

According to my brothers, her voice was one of the best female singing voices ever.

I met all of them over Google Hangouts. I told them the truth about myself, and they took it surprisingly well. Hope told me that as long as I never went back into my old ways, they were willing to forgive me of everything I had done to Chris and Al, and the others seemed to agree with her. 

There was a lot of catching up between my brothers and their friends. Even though they pretty much knew everything about what the others were going through, they had a lot to say to each other.   
Eventually, it came time for dinner. Jordan cooked hamburgers, and Katie made a delicious sauce to go with the hamburgers. After dinner, Jordan started a campfire and we decided to roast marshmallows. We had a great time, talking with each other, laughing at stupid jokes, and singing campfire songs. After everything was done, our friends left for their separate campsites. If only this could last forever.


	8. CHAPTER VIII: CHRIS

I smiled as I started into the cosmos, thinking about all that had changed ever since Tyler apologized to us and moved in. He had a really difficult life, full of so much pain. It was one thing to lose two loving parents, but it was another to grow up with an abusive father and to never have known your mother. But he was here now, and that’s what mattered.

I looked over at Tyler’s sleeping form. ‘He looks so harmless right now,’ I thought, ‘He’s so kind to others, so caring and compassionate, it’s like he’s a completely different person, yet that dark side of him is still in there somewhere,’

I put my hands behind the back of my head. I was having kind of a hard time falling asleep. No matter how many times I closed my eyes, my mind would keep me awake...

The next thing I knew, sunlight was streaming through the tree branches. What happened? Did I fall asleep and not realize it? I heard voices, which I instantly recognized as Tyler and Nick’s.

“So this is the first time we’ve actually met in person...” Tyler trailed off.

“Eh, we’re still friends, right? I mean, any friend of Al and Chris is a friend of mine." Nick sounded like he was grinning. “How well did you sleep last night?” he asked.

“Pretty well." Tyler replied.

Nick chuckled. “I slept like a rock. You excited for today? We are going swimming, after all.”

“Yeah, I am! This will be the first time I’ve gone swimming in years.” from the tone of his voice, I could tell that Tyler really was stoked.

“Good morning, Nick, Ty.” Hope’s voice chimed in.

“Mornin’” Nick and Tyler replied.

“So you two are the first ones awake, huh?” Hope asked.

“Apparently. So please try to keep your voice down." Tyler replied.

“Of course!”

“Did you come up with Nick’s family?” Tyler asked.

“Yeah, I did." Hope replied cheerfully.

“Sam and Rachel came up together as well, and since Sam has his driving license, they didn’t need anyone to drive them. The four of us are staying in the same campground, and my parents are supervising us while we’re up there. They’re still asleep." Nick explained.

“That makes sense.” Tyler muttered.

I got out of my sleeping bag and walked down to the tables.

“Good morning... are you Chris or Al?” Hope asked.

“That’s Chris.” Tyler grinned.

“How do you tell them apart?!” Nick exclaimed.

“He just can.” I replied.

“We need some method to tell you two apart. I’m thinking maybe you should wear labels or something.” Hope suggested.

“No thanks.” I replied.

“How long have you been awake?” Nick asked me.

“I woke up a little bit before Hope came down.” I replied.

“So now we wait for everyone else to wake up.” Tyler sat down on one of the benches.

“Alvin usually wakes up around five to ten minutes after myself, and Katie is usually up before me.” I interjected.

“On campouts, she’s almost always the last one awake.” Jordan’s voice muttered from behind me.

I jumped. 

“Don’t do that again!” I yelped, whipping around to face him.

Everybody else laughed. 

“Sorry." Jordan said.

“Hi, guys!” Rachel grinned, coming up the trail with Sam.

“Good morning.” the rest of us chorused.

“So what have you guys been up to?” Rachel asked, taking a seat next to Tyler.

“We’ve just been talking.” I replied.

“About what?” Rachel asked.

“Random things.” Nick muttered.

“Like how this thing happened where a dinosaur...”

“No, Sam.” I said.

“Oh. Darn.”

“We were discussing giving Chris and Al labels so we could tell them apart." Hope interjected.

“I already told you, no!” I groaned.

“I agree with Chris." Alvin yawned. He was sitting on the other side of Tyler, and it was pretty apparent he had just barely woken up.

“So we’re waiting for Katie and my parents." Nick muttered, “Fantastic.”

“I thought Katie was the one who always got up first." Alvin looked confused.

“Not on campouts." Jordan and I replied in unison.

We waited for about an hour before Katie and Nick’s parents finally showed up. We ate breakfast, and Jordan decided that we should go on a hike before going swimming. It wasn’t a very long hike, but I stayed close to my brothers and friends so we could talk along the way. When we came back, all of us hurried to change into our swimwear. We spent about four or five hours swimming in the lake, racing each other, splashing each other, jumping off the dock, and skipping rocks.  
When we came back, it was about time for lunch. We had sandwiches and decided to take a break and rest for a while, which was good because I was exhausted.

The rest of the week passed too quickly for my liking. Jordan and Katie decided to let us stay with our friends in Utah until August first. As it turns out, they were invited to Jokarts as well, Sam was in his second year and the rest of us were going into our first year. My brothers and I constantly tried to get inside info from Sam, but he wouldn’t say anything, though we weren’t sure if that was because he wanted to keep it a secret or if he didn’t pay attention at all during his first year. You could never tell with someone like him.

August first finally came. Sam left to go catch his train while the rest of us waited for Jupiter to start.  
So we waited, and we waited some more, waited for what felt like hours.

“Didn’t Cara say that we’d be woken up by Jupiter?” Alvin asked.

“I don’t remember, but it’s almost dinner time, so if that’s really what she said then she was way off...” I glanced at the digital clock mounted on the wall.

Right after I spoke, music filled the air around us. The very familiar epic brass, strings, and winds that started the piece known as  
Jupiter could be heard from all four directions, as if we were surrounded by the orchestra that was playing it.

“Well this is exciting!” Tyler said.

“LET’S GO!!!” Nick screamed.

“My ears...” I moaned.

Nick grinned mischievously, “I can go louder if you want.” he said.

“No thank you.” I said.

“How long is Jupiter, exactly?” Rachel asked.

“Depending on the performance, it can be anywhere between five and fifteen minutes." Tyler said.

“I think this one will be about seven or eight.” Alvin said.

As the music was playing, we were thrust into a sort of tunnel that was made of brilliantly colored lights. It felt like we were free falling. The colors and patterns of the lights were changing in sync with the mood of the piece. It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. When the piece reaches its climax, the tunnel faded and we were standing on the shore of a gorgeous lake. The water in the lake acted like the lights in the tunnel, changing colors to fit the mood of the music, until the piece was over, then the water stopped changing color. When it stopped, the water was a very beautiful shade of gold. It kind of reminded me of a sunset.

On the opposite side of the lake was Jokarts. The building was beautiful. The bricks were the same shade of gold as the lake, and although Cara said it wasn’t a castle, it certainly appeared to be one. It was like the architect decided to mix a bit of a medieval castle with modern architecture. There were towers and turrets and even a moat, though the building itself appeared to be a typical college. There were about two hundred other students, staring around in awe at the surroundings.  
With a huge splash, a beautiful white bridge rose from the lake, providing a direct path from the shore we were on to Jokarts. On both ends stood four huge horse statues, erected on the left and right side of both ends of the bridge.

“Welcome to Jokarts!” A voice boomed, “Allow me to explain a few things about how this place works. You will be staying in groups of about ten or so, which have already been assigned to you based on where you are from and who you already know here. Each separate group is allowed to come up with a name for themselves so that when there’s school wide competitions we can refer to that group under one title.

“That brings me to another point. Here at Jokarts, we often have school wide competitions. Some of those events are for solo participants, but most are for groups. At the end of the group events, the group who wins gets one point. The group at the end of the year who has the most points is awarded with one thousand US dollars." When this was said, everyone started whispering. 

“After dinner is over, each of you first years will be given an envelope with your dorm number. If you need help to find your dorm, feel free to ask the envelope. It will guide you."  
Everyone laughed. 

“I’m serious. The envelope has in it a bit of advanced technology, only found here at Jokarts, and if you ask it for help, it will show you the way." the voice sounded exasperated, “Please, make your way across this bridge. You will meet me at the entrance to Jokarts, and I will show you to your tables.”

We crossed the bridge. When we got to Jokarts we were greeted by a man wearing a white suit. “My name is Xander Regalds, and I am one of the two heads of this school. Please, follow me  
We followed Professor Regalds through the giant, golden doors that led to a huge dining room. There were about ten, long tables, each seating about sixty to eighty students.

A woman stepped up to a microphone, located at the very end of the room. “Welcome to Jokarts!” She greeted. The students all roared and cheered. Some were stamping their feet and hooting. Usually, when someone started speaking, the rest of the room was supposed to get quiet. Everything was so chaotic and crazy....it drove me insane.

The woman laughed. Laughed. “Good to see your Jokarts Spirit is still running strong! Now, if you’ll please settle down, I have a few things I wish to talk to you about before we bring out dinner.”

The students settled down. I looked at my brothers, and they seemed as shocked as I was. Tyler looked miffed, and I could understand why. Being a former Student Body President, he was used to people quieting down when somebody got up to a podium and spoke. That was how things were done back at Phoenix Junior High.

“For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Professor Mary Regalds, and I am the headmistress of the school. We have some rules that we need to remind you of. First, no roaming about in the Vaults without written consent from one of the teachers. There are dangerous artifacts down there, not to mention that the place is the most complicated maze in the universe. You’d get lost the moment you set foot in that place. 

“Second, there is a curfew. There is to be no one outside of their dormitories after ten o’clock Those caught breaking curfew will be punished accordingly. Lastly, please remember that, since Anthos is out in the open, the school is subject to certain war protocols, which vary from class to class. Never go anywhere on your own. The school does have protections, but they are not impenetrable by any means. They are very difficult to get through, but not impossible. 

“Next, for those of you entering that contest for the Boston Pops Orchestra, entries are due not this Friday but next Friday. Now, it’s time for dinner. The buffet table is ready, so please, dig in!” Mary Regalds went back to her seat and sat down.  
A table was rolled into the back of the room. It was filled with all sorts of different foods from all around the world.

So we ate, and we managed to find our way to the dormitories, where we were greeted by a very familiar face.

“My name is Felix Soratowa, and I am the dorm head. Everybody from Utah and Arizona lives in this dorm. I hope you find yourselves comfortable. There are a couple things I need to go over. Lights out is at ten thirty, and there is to be no talking after that point. The boys sleep downstairs, first door to the right, and the girls sleep upstairs, first door on the left. 

“This room is one of the areas where you are allowed to spend your free time. Other than here, you can go to the library, one of the studios, the lounge, or practically anywhere else, except for the Vaults, and the halls Felix droned, reading from a manual.  
After Felix finished reading, he closed the manual and looked up at us, grinning, “So now that we’ve gotten past the boring stuff, we should get to know each other a little bit better. Tell me about yourself!” 

“But you already know my brothers and I, Felix!” I said.

“No excuses, Chris. The rest of these people don’t know you, and I intend to fix that.” Felix said.

“Fine, fine.” I murmured.

So we went around the room, and after introductions were over, I went straight to bed. It took me a while to get to sleep, though, because there was so much on my mind. Everything that was happening so far was just...perfect. Nothing has gone wrong, and that fact alone made me think that something huge was just over the horizon. It made me feel like our lives were about to take a turn for the worse.

* * * * *  
“Is it ready?”

“No, not yet. I need some more time.”

“You have until the end of this school year. Do not fail me, as Radnox did

“But sir, I don’t think that’s enough ti--”

“YOU WILL HAVE IT READY BY THEN!!!”

“Yessir."

Anthos grinned, a malicious glint lighting up his eyes. _'Those buffoons at Jokarts will have no idea what hit them!'_ he thought, laughing maniacally.


	9. CHAPTER IX: FELIX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kind of like a bonus/interlude chapter featuring Felix. I probably won't include this story in the final draft(the one I'm planning on getting published)

Felix Soratowa. That was my given name. Felix meant ‘the lucky one,’ or ‘one favored by luck,’.

It was ironic, really. Me, lucky? 

_As if_

It was in my third year at Jokarts. I was invited to join a special team that carried out secret missions during the fight against Anthos and his men. They weren’t out in the open at the time, but we still went through some pretty nasty battles.

I met Madi when I was assigned to lead a team for the first time. It was a team of four, me, Zack, Ralph, and Madi. We were assigned to do some covert work over in Japan.  
After the mission was over, I started dating Madi. She was a firecracker, one of the fiercest warriors I’d ever met, and I loved that about her. She was bright, witty, gentle when she wanted to be, fierce, basically the best woman I could ever ask for.

It was the fifth mission our team had gone on. It was supposed to be another infiltration of one of their bases located in San Francisco.  
Except they somehow knew we were coming.  
We didn’t realize it was a trap at first. We decided to spend some time hanging out in the city because we ‘completed’ the mission and wanted to take time to celebrate. Then, I heard his music.

Anthos Dasper was _here_ , in the city.

The others heard it too, the dark, heavy electric guitars, the heavy percussion.

“He’s here?” Madi said.

“What’s he doing in San Francisco? We were told he was in New York!” Zack yelled.

“We completed the mission! They weren’t even suspicious of us! If they knew we were spying, they would’ve tried to kill us!” Ralph said.

“Not if they knew what our abilities were.” Madi replied.

“That would mean that there’s a spy in the ranks of the JSF!” Zack looked murderous.

“Yes, it would.” I said.

“We need to focus! Anthos is hiding his true form, which means that Felix will be the only one able to identify him!” Madi said.

“Right! I’m on it." I closed my eyes, focusing on the origin of that music. I followed it to a point about fifty yards in front of us. 

_‘Of course,’_ I thought, _‘choose the form that will attract the least attention. It’s always been the way he worked,’_. 

“He’s disguised as a ten year old boy.” I said.

“Where is he?” Madi asked.

“About fifty yards in front of us, waiting for something.”

“Would it be better to take a different route? Try to avoid him altogether?” Zack asked.

“That is an option....” I began.

“There is no escape from me...you are in my world now. Welcome to your death!” the voice was that of a gleeful child, and it was the most chilling and terrifying thing I had ever heard in my life. 

_‘How can a child sound so evil?’_ I thought. 

But it wasn’t a child. It was Anthos, pretending to be a child.

“What do you mean we’re ‘stuck in your world?!’ It’s impossible to create something like that with Ephora!” Madilyn said.

“You really think Ephora is that limited?” Anthos asked, “In this world, I am God. You are nothing but tiny little insects, crawling around, ready to be crushed."

“We haven’t even left San Francisco." I said, rolling my eyes.

“So you would like a change of scenery, Felix?” Anthos asked, “How about your old home?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, starting to panic.  
He couldn’t know about _that_ place, could he?

“You know very well what I’m talking about. How long have you been living, Felix? One hundred years? Two hundred? Three? Or has it been even longer for you?” Anthos asked mockingly.

“I didn’t ask for this existence!” I shouted.

“No, no, it was all daddy’s fault, wasn’t it? What happened, again? Didn’t he insult the founders of Ephora or something? Did he, perhaps, murder one of their best friends?” Anthos asked.

“What’s he going on about, Felix?” Zack asked me.

“Yeah, there’s no way you can be that old, is there?” Ralph laughed, though he sounded unsure.

“Have you been keeping something from me, Fel?” Madi asked.

“I’m sorry I haven’t told you guys...” I began, “But I didn’t want to freak you out...”

“What do you mean?” Zack looked concerned.

I took a deep breath. “I’m immortal."

“What do you mean immortal?” Madi asked, “How is that even possible? And why, if you are that old, did you wait for so long to start at Jokarts?”

“Because I didn’t want anything to do with it!” I snapped.

“Tell them your story, Felix. Tell them everything!” Anthos laughed.

“You foul, evil, demon!” I yelled.

“Couldn’t come up with anything more creative? More than a century old and still you can’t come up with any remarkable insults. Tell them!” Anthos yelled, his voice filled with a malicious glee.

Zack and Ralph were watching us in horror. Zack’s mouth was opening and closing like a fish, and Ralph’s jaw looked like it could hit the floor.

“Why do you want me to tell them? Wouldn’t it be easier just to kill us off?!” If I could get my hands on that...psychopath, I would tear him into a million pieces and throw all of those pieces into a fire! Anthos just crossed the one line that made me tick. How did he even know about this?

“Because I want to see you squirm! What’s the fun in killing you now? I’ve got you in the palm of my hand, right where I want you. There is no possibility of escape, so you might as well tell them your story because the end result will be the same. All four of you will die, and those windbags will die as well!”

“Who are you talking about?” I asked.

“The headmasters, of course!” Anthos shouted, a maniacal glee resonating in his childlike voice.

“There’s no way you can kill them." Zack rolled his eyes.

“Oh, but I can. It’s so easy, to use Ephora to make a man drunk! All it’ll take is one, well-timed burst, and bam! They all die in a car accident." 

His phone rang. 

“Oooh, the agent I’ve sent to kill them is calling me, what is he going to say?!” He answered his phone. “Yes. Really? No trouble at all? They’re dead?! Aw, that’s too bad. They couldn’t even save themselves from a tiny little car crash! Thank you! I’ve got some business I really need to take care of right now, so if you don’t mind, I’ll be going." He hung up the phone.

“There’s no way they could have gotten themselves killed in a car crash! You’re bluffing!” I shouted.

“Am I?” Anthos asked, “Maybe I should let you go, just to see the news. They’re DEAD!!”

Anthos materialized in front of us, his ten year old face grinning maniacally, an expression no one that age should have. It was revolting.

“Do you like this form? It has so much energy! No one ever suspects the ‘innocent child’, though the voice is a bit high for my liking. I think I’ll change the scenery now." 

Anthos snapped his fingers. The buildings around us disappeared were replaced with tall palm trees. The smell of the ocean was stronger than it was in San Francisco. I looked to my left and noticed a building I hadn’t seen for centuries.

The ruins of the castle I used to live in.

“If you want, you can use my world to tell your story! It would be so much fun, watching their reactions as they observed your past. In fact, I’ll link this place to your memories! Prepare for departure to Felix’s past in three, two, one...”

I took a deep breath. _‘Here we go... time for some explaining’_

“My father was the king of Lifthia, a place of astounding beauty, a paradise of sorts." the scenery changed. We were now outside of the castle, but instead of the overgrowth and the old ruined castle, we were surrounded by plants of all different kinds. There was a stream, not too far from here. My mind whirled with emotions and memories I had forgotten. Playing in the stream as a child, going horseback riding with my father, going hunting in these woods. The feeling of nostalgia was overwhelming.

“You were a prince?” Zack asked.

“You expect us to believe...” Madi started.

“Yes, it really is quite exciting, isn’t it? Our little pwince, and his pwecious little father, so happy together, it bwings tears to my eyes...” Anthos said

“SHUT UP!!!” I yelled.

“Temper, temper. I was right, this really is highly amusing! I should have brought popcorn, wait...” Anthos snapped, and a container filled with popcorn materialized in his outstretched hand, “There! I have popcorn. Continue, Prince Lefthet."

“Lefthet?” Ralph asked, “Felix’s last name is Soratowa!”

“So that’s the name you’re using these days? During the days of my predecessor it was Limingham! And before that it was...”.

“We get the point, you insane lunatic." I interrupted.

“You keep your first name, though. Why?” Anthos asked.

“I honestly don’t know.” I said.

“Well, shall we continue with the story then? You’ve barely gotten past describing your own home! How long will I have to wait before the end? Or are you stalling for time because you know that I’ll kill you and your precious friends as soon as you’re done?” Anthos laughed, a menacing glint lighting up his murky green eyes.

“How would you kill Felix? I mean if he’s immortal...” Zack trailed off.

“Immortal is a relative term." I answered, “I cannot age or get sick, nor am I capable of harming myself. I can only be killed by another person."

“And that, folks, is what’s going to happen today!” Anthos announced, as if he was on a night show, “But for now, back to the story! Where are you going to start?”

“One day, a messenger appeared at the front gates of the palace." I began.

The scene shifted. A man on horseback was approaching the palace at a pretty high speed, spurring his horse on as though it were the end of the world. When he reached the gate, the man dismounted and opened the door, allowing himself inside of the palace.

“My lord! I bear a message from John K. Artson." he said when he reached the throne room.

“What does he want?” my father asked.

“To celebrate! His men have discovered something rather interesting, something that could work to our advantage against Kilthrin.” the messenger replied.

“Go on.” the king said.

“He’s discovered that certain people are born with varying degrees of control over an energy he’s called Ephora. Ephora is what he calls the stuff that music is made out of. People who can control Ephora can basically manipulate the most basic elements and even exert control over others, drive others to insanity, kill, wound, and so much more." the messenger said.

“This power... could it make one immortal?” my father asked, a hungry look in his eyes.

“My lord, I wouldn’t advise...”

“Could it?” my father said.

“Yes, I suppose it could, but...”

“But what?”

“Sir Artson and the other founders of Ephora have forbidden it to be used in such ways...”

“I AM THE KING!!! You will tell me how to achieve immortality, or you will be executed for treason!” my father said.

“I’m sorry, my lord." the messenger mumbled.

“You will be executed at first light tomorrow. Guards! Take him away!”

Two guards burst through the doors and grabbed the man around the waist.

“You will regret this moment! I swear to you, my friends will exact their revenge!” the messenger shouted.

“And they did." I said, interrupting the memory. “I didn’t know that my father was that power hungry until this moment. For the year following this incident, my father became a tyrant. He would execute anyone who dared to refuse him. He built ships so he could take over the unknown lands that were beyond our island. He grew cold towards his wife and myself. He expected me to follow his every word, to be as cold and cruel as he became.

“After a year, John K. Artson and his friends finally arrived to Lifthia. They were very angry at my father, and... well see for yourself."

A man wearing purple robes burst into the throne room, his face contorted in fury as he grabbed the king by the robes.

“You murdered my best friend...” he whispered.

“GUARDS!!!” the king shouted.

“Your ‘guards’ are out of commission." John K. Artson said.

“W-w-what do you want with me, John?” the king said, suddenly scared.

“You wanted immortality? I shall show you the true pain being immortal can bring! I give unto you a prophecy! The Sun Prince shall never die, until the shadow which shall cover the Earth is destroyed by the Golden Brothers! The Golden Brothers shall give the Sun Prince and the world hope!”

“What kind of rubbish is that?!” My father laughed.

As soon as he said that, the room was filled with a golden light. I heard my past self scream in pain. It was odd, hearing myself scream like that. That was one of the most painful things I’d ever gone through. The Ephora had rewritten my entire molecular system.

The screaming stopped.

“What did you do to my son?” the king yelled.

“I gave him the gift which you so foolishly desired.” John said.

The flashback ended. My friends were staring at me, their jaws agape.

“That’s the end! Now time for you to die!” Anthos roared.

“Not yet it’s not!” Madi grinned, “I’ve figured out the weakness to this little world of yours. I know how to get us out of here!” Madilyn said.

“Then you should also know the cost!” Anthos said.

“You’ll have to do better than that to scare me, little boy!” Madi said.

“What are you talking about? You can get us out of here?” Zack asked.

“How?” Ralph asked.

“He got us here by connecting his Ephora network with ours. This is all an elaborate illusion, but even so, it is still possible for us to die here. The weakness lies in the fact that the illusion relies solely on his connection to our Ephora networks. If the connection is severed, we should immediately go back to the real world." Madi said.

“What’s the catch?” I asked.

“I have to use all of my Ephora to sever the connection." Madi replied.

My face whitened and my heart stopped. “NO!!! I WON’T LET YOU!!!” 

Madi sighed. “There are some things that you have to let go, Felix. Even if I didn’t die today, my life would still end long before yours. At least this way, I’ll die fighting." she said. 

“Don’t say that! You still have your life ahead of you! Let me...” I said.

Madi shook her head. “I’m starting the process as we speak. The resulting explosion will probably kill you and your friends if you don’t do anything."

“I can create a shield." Ralph said. 

I swallowed.

“Don’t you dare stay here, Felix!” Madi yelled, “I don’t want you dying just yet! You’re one of the most powerful Ephora users the JSF has to offer! If you die here, then I’ll kill you in the afterlife! Understand?”

I nodded slowly. “Fine. Let’s get going, Ralph.” I said.

Madi grinned, “It’s been fun, Felix! I’ll see you later!”

Ralph created the shield. Madi looked at us one last time, probably checking the shield. She was then enveloped in an extremely bright, white light, and she exploded violently, shattering the illusion that Anthos created.

“Hey, Felix? Are you okay?” Ralph’s voice brought me back to the present.

“No, I’m not.” I said.

“You’re thinking about that day again, aren’t you?” It was more of a statement than a question.

“Yeah, I am."

Ralph started to massage my shoulders. “Listen, I know that I won’t be able to offer any words of comfort or anything, because I have no idea what kind of pain you must have felt that day.” he said.

“You don’t have to. ” I muttered.

“All I can do for you is to be there and support you. Zack and I both have your back, and I’m confident you have ours as well."

“I know that, it’s just...” I trailed off.

“What?” Ralph asked.

“You two will both grow old and die, and I’m stuck here for who knows how long! I’ve lost so many friends because they grew old, or they got sick, or they were murdered, the list goes on and on! I’m sick and tired of it!” I shouted.

“At least you have friends.” Ralph said.

I took a shuddering breath, “You’re right.” 

“Let’s talk about something else.”

“Like what?”

“What made you like the Larsons so quickly?” Ralph asked.

“I felt a pretty powerful connection between myself and those three boys. It was almost as though I’d met them before somewhere. It’s kind of hard to describe the feeling I had in words."

“Well that was short, ” Ralph muttered under his breath.

“Were you expecting some huge, twenty hour analysis of their personalities? You know me well enough that you know I don’t do speeches." I reminded him.

“You’ve changed, Felix." Ralph muttered.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“When I first met you, you were a pretty closed off person. You were quiet and mysterious, sometimes you were even a jerk. I think that Madi worked some sort of magic on you.” Ralph said.

“You’re probably right." I said. The truth was that I hadn’t wanted to get close to anyone, knowing that that in the end I’d lose them.

Ralph stopped massaging my shoulders. “I think I should get going, it’s almost time for bed, and tomorrow’s the orientation. I love seeing the looks on the firsties’ faces when they see Jokarts for the first time.” 

“Isn’t this the room that you sleep in?” I asked, gesturing to his bed.

“Shhh." Ralph put a finger to his lips. Then he grinned, “You got me. Let’s get to bed. Tomorrow is a big day, after all."

I nodded, “Yeah, it is."

I remembered my orientation pretty clearly. Some idiot decided to play a prank on us and we ended up having to spend the next day cleaning our dorm, as it was covered in whipped cream and strawberries. And then the same idiot decided to fill up hundreds of glasses with water and set them up in the Main Hall. They were all  
lined up diagonally, and it was perfectly symmetrical as well, and guess who had to clean that up? The person who was head of cleaning always had the firsties do his work. He was eventually fired and replaced with one of the coolest people on the face of the Earth, Gabe Hall.

Those Larson brothers had been on my mind a lot since I met them. I often thought about why I felt the way I did about them. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but as I told Ralph, they felt familiar as though I had met them sometime before that day, but I’d never seen them before in my life. I knew I could trust them, and I hoped that they would be able to trust me.


	10. CHAPTER X: ALVIN

“You excited for today, guys?” Chris asked Tyler and I.

I nodded eagerly, “Yeah! It’s our first day of classes! I wonder what sort of things they’ll teach us...”

“Oi, Larson boys!” Felix called from across the dorm.

“What is it?” The three of us answered.

“The headmaster wants to see you." Felix said.

“What for?” Tyler asked.

“I’m not sure, but I’m guessing it’s to do with the fact that you possess Ephora." Felix said.

“Doesn’t everyone here have it?” I asked.

Felix shook his head, “It’s not something that everyone has. In fact, it’s extremely rare. I wouldn’t be surprised if you three, myself, and my friends were the only ones here that had it.”

“Cara knows about it...” Chris muttered.

“That’s probably because she’s the headmaster’s daughter." Felix said.

“Let’s go see what Professor Regalds wants." I said. Tyler and Chris nodded in agreement.

“Where’s his office?” Tyler asked.

Felix grinned, “It’s impossible to miss. If you go directly north, you’ll end up there.”

“Directly north?” I asked.

Felix nodded, “Yep! North is always the way to the headmaster’s office, no matter where you’re at!”

“Okay... and what about things like walls and gaps?” Chris asked.

Felix smirked, “Just go north.”

The three of us shared a glance.

“Any of you bring a compass?” Tyler asked.

Chris and I shook our heads.

“You mean you didn’t bring one? Shame.” Chris muttered sarcastically.

“Do you really need a compass to find north?” Felix asked. “The sun rises in the east, remember? So if you need to find north, just turn to the right of where the sun is is right now."

Chris glanced out the window. His eyes widened slightly, and he turned to face the wall opposite of where the door was.

“This is north." he stated.

“So we head this way?” I asked.

Felix nodded, “Start walking!” he said.

“Are you _trying_ to make us look like idiots?” Tyler asked.

“Just do it! If it doesn’t work, I give you permission to do whatever you want to me." Felix said.

So we started walking. _‘We’re either going to run into the wall or trip on something,’_ I thought, rolling my eyes. When we got to the wall, however, instead of the wall stopping us, we walked _through_ the wall, and into a _really_ big room. Symbols were drawn on the walls

in a strange material that seemed to change colors a lot. They went from red to orange to gold to blue. It reminded me of a kaleidoscope. The door opened, revealing a very happy looking Xander Regalds. When he saw us, he motioned for us to sit in one of the cushy arm chairs.

“Welcome to my office!” he said.

The three of us could only stare. “This place. I-I’ve never seen anything like it." Tyler said.

Chris and I nodded in agreement.

Xander grinned, “Isn’t it wonderful? The symbols on the walls are written in a special language developed by John K. Artson, the founder of Jokarts and the one who this school is named after. That’s not why I called you here though. You three possess a special ability that would be _really_ beneficial to whatever side you decide to fight for. Do you have any idea of what I’m talking about?”

“Are you talking about Ephora?” Chris asked.

“We have a winner! What do you three know about Ephora?” Xander asked.

“It has something to do with music, right? From what I’ve seen so far, Ephora can be utilized kind of like telekinesis,  for example; using my will, I can make objects come closer to me." Tyler said.

Xander nodded, “What you said is partially correct. Ephora can indeed mimic telekinesis, however, there’s a lot more it can do that you probably aren’t even aware of. For example."

Xander opened his hand. He flexed his fingers a bit. A small flame erupted in his palm.

“By concentrating Ephora in my palm, I can use soundwaves to create vibrations at extremely high speeds, creating the heat and friction needed to start a fire." he said.

“Ephora can mimic any of the elements on the periodic table as well. For example." Xander waved his hand. Water started swirling around Xander, following every movement his hand made.

“You’re saying the three of us are capable of that?” Tyler asked.

“You were able to enter my office, were you not?” Xander said.

“You can’t have called us here just to show off.” I said.

“Right to the point, aren’t we? I want to start your training today!” Xander said.

“And what about our other classes?” Chris asked.

“Your first class doesn’t begin until after lunch. We have plenty of time!” Xander said

“And what about orientation?” Tyler asked.

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll go over everything with you. Before we get started, we need to figure out what kinds of Ephora you three are suited for."

“There are different types of Ephora?” I asked.

Xander nodded, “Yeah, there are. The ability I showed you is called ‘Elemental Ephora’ which, as the name implies, specializes in molding Ephora into different elements. The different types of Ephora are Elemental Ephora, Manifestation Ephora, Telekinetic Ephora, and Manipulation Ephora. With me so far?”

We nodded.

Xander grinned, “Good! Now to explain what each type of Ephora does. We’ve already gone over Elemental Ephora, so let’s go on to Manifestation. Manifestation specializes in molding Ephora into a solid form. Unlike Elemental Ephora, Manifestation can create physical objects, like chairs, couches, swords, guns, balls of energy, the list goes on and on! Its weakness lies in the fact that there aren’t many offensive uses for a user of Manifestation Ephora. Sure, they can create weapons and utilize powerful energy attacks, but the energy attacks are a one-shot deal, in other words, once a Manifestation user uses one, they’ve nearly used up all their Ephora.

“Like its name implies, Telekinetic Ephora specializes in mimicking telekinesis. It’s the only form of Ephora which everyone can use without having an affinity towards it, and because of that, that’s the one that most people use unintentionally. Think of it like the Force from Star Wars because that’s essentially what it is. It can push, pull, crush, levitate and choke. If it’s trained well enough, one can use sensory abilities to locate people and predict incoming attacks by reading your opponent's intentions. Telekinetic Ephora is also capable of reading thoughts, but it’s against our law and there are _really_ severe punishments if you’re caught. Be warned, if you attempt it within the school boundaries, I’ll know.

“Manipulation Ephora specializes in manipulating three different things; the body, the environment, and the soul. First let’s talk about body manipulation. Manipulators can alter the body’s chemistry, in other words, they are capable of changing their body into whatever they see fit. You want to turn your fist into solid rock?

Make yourself feather light or stone-crushing heavy? This is the branch of Ephora that allows one to do all of these things and more. Using Ephora, one with an affinity towards Manipulation can alter the environment like they can their body.

“Now, let’s talk about the most powerful aspect of Manipulation Ephora. Manipulating the soul is something that _very_ few users of Manipulation Ephora have been able to do. Not much is known about it, but it’s said to be able to grant the user godlike powers. I’ve heard of cases where mountains have been turned to ash and oceans dried up. I’ve also heard of cases where users were able to turn into towering demons, capable of crushing cities with their hands and tearing the earth apart with their breath. The other branches have abilities that powerful as well, but not much else is known other than the fact that they exist.

“Now, before we move on, you need to know something about Ephora. There is a limit to how much one can do with it. Like mana from most RPGs, Ephora depletes when you use it, however, unlike mana, when you run out of Ephora, you quite literally explode. You’ll know when you’re running low, and it is possible to train to increase your reserves."

Xander took a deep breath. “Any questions?” he asked.

We shook our heads, “No. You answered all the questions we had.” I answered.

“Another thing. The war warning that my wife gave out? Only people with Ephora heard that. There are several things that only people with Ephora experienced. Most think that the thing we do with the first years is a piece of _really_ advanced technology, which it is. Technology that runs off of Ephora." Xander said.

“Why mention that last bit?” Tyler asked.

Xander grinned, “Forgive me. Sometimes I start rambling about something and can’t stop. You haven’t seen me on a bad day yet. For some reason, all of us who are really powerful are also quite eccentric. We all have our little quirks, and mine just happens to be rambling. Are you planning on seeing the new Star Wars movie? How about getting the new...”

“Professor," I interrupted, “The training?”

Xander’s eyes widened, “Ah yes. The training. How could I forget about the training? We need to figure out what kind of Ephora you three are best suited for. Fortunately, there’s a test that we can perform to figure that out.”

“What sort of test?” I asked.

Xander grinned, “Allow me to show you!”

Xander got off of his armchair and pulled out a piece of chalk. He drew a circle in the middle of the room, big enough for two people to sit in. He then drew some of the same strange symbols  that were on the walls on the inside of the circle, an inch in from the

perimeter. When he finished, the symbols started revolving slowly around the center of the circle.

“This method was developed by John K. Artson about twenty years after he announced the discovery of Ephora, which was about five hundred years ago. What you do is sit in the center of the circle and meditate. If you specialize in Elemental Ephora, the symbols will light on fire. Manifestation, and the symbols will stop rotating. Manipulation, and the symbols will glow like the sun. With me so far?”

“Let’s get started already!” We exclaimed.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’," Xander said, “Let’s go oldest to youngest. Who’s the oldest here?”

“That would be Tyler." Chris and I responded.

Xander grinned. “Good! Now, if you would sit in the center of the circle."

Tyler nodded slowly. He stood and walked over to the circle that Xander had drawn. He sat down, crossing his legs and looking at Xander, obviously expecting more instruction.

 Xander nodded. “Very good. Now close your eyes. Good. Relax, steady your breathing. This method won’t work if you’re panicky. Clear your mind. Focus on your surroundings."

Chris and I watched the symbols carefully while Tyler was meditating. The symbols kept rotating for what seemed like hours. In reality, however, it was about thirty minutes before something finally happened. The symbols emitted an extremely bright light, causing the rest of us to put our hands over our eyes.

“Tyler is a Manipulator.”  Xander said, after the light died down.

Tyler opened his eyes. “That felt like it took ages.” he yawned.

“That didn’t take very long." Xander said.

“What do you mean?! That was half an hour!” Chris yelled

“Usually it takes two or more hours." Xander said cheerfully.

“And you didn’t mention this sooner because...?” Tyler asked, glaring at Xander.

“It’s not important!” Xander replied.

“ _Not important?!_ We’re going to miss lunch _and_ our first class if the rest of us take that long!” Chris yelled.

“Settle down, kids. You’re not going to miss anything.” Xander said.

We glared at Xander.

“I’m next.” Chris said sourly.

“Don’t get so angry! I already told you this method only works if you’re calm!” Xander said.

Chris rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

It took about ten minutes before Chris finally calmed down. He sat in the center of the circle, eyes closed. After about forty minutes, the symbols lit on fire.

“An Elementalist." Xander said.

Chris opened his eyes.  “Alvin, you’re next.”

“Where are your astonished looks? The expressions of wonder one usually gets when they discover they have this kind of power?!” Xander yelled.

The three of us stared at him.

Xander coughed. “Right. You’re in a hurry. I get it.".

“Do you really?” I asked sarcastically.

“Just sit in the circle already!!” Xander exclaimed.

So I did. When I sat down, I closed my eyes and started meditating. To my shock, when I closed my eyes, rather than the usual black with splotches of color, my vision was filled with the same rotating circle that I was sitting on.

“Can you hear me?” Xander’s voice asked.

“Yes.” I said.

“Good. Now concentrate. Remember, the circle will do one of three things for you. Your specialty will be determined by your personality. Think about things you like, goals in life, what you’d do

in situations in which you are forced to fight, things like that. The circle can use what it detects from your personality to determine which branch of Ephora you are best suited for. Ephora and personality are pretty closely related, after all."

I did as Xander asked. It took about forty minutes for me to completely analyze my own personality. When I finished, the symbols on the circle stopped rotating.

“We have a Manifestor! All three in the same family! That’s pretty rare...” Xander trailed off.

I opened my eyes. “Is that everything, then?” I asked.

Xander nodded.

“One question...” Tyler said.

“Yes?” Xander asked.

“How do we get out of here?”

Xander grinned, “Go south, until you hit a wall!”

“Which way is south?” Chris asked.

“That way." I replied, pointing.

“How do you know?” Tyler asked.

“There’s a compass on the floor!” I said.

Both my brothers looked like one could fry an egg on their faces.

Although we hadn’t shown it, we were excited about all the possibilities our Ephora opened up. We didn’t want to let our excitement distract us from the rest of the classes, though, so we decided to hold off talking about them until we got back to the dorms.

One of the many good things I could say about the classes here at Jokarts was that none of them were boring! All of the teachers knew how to keep the students engaged. All of them were the best at what they did, and all of them had managed to impress my brothers and I.

We could tell just by walking through the halls at Jokarts that it was a _very_ prestigious school. The walls were painted gold, and portraits of famous composers could be found easily, hanging in the dorms and the halls. The halls were lined with velvet carpet, and the lounge contained top-notch computers and recording studios. The words ‘ _aut viam inveniam aut faciam_ ,’ literally meaning, ‘ _I will find a way or make one_ ,’ were inscribed above the entrance to the Great Hall. It was a latin phrase all of the teachers had drilled into our heads, being Jokarts’ motto and all.

After dinner, my brothers and I made our way to the dorms. The teachers hadn’t assigned any extra work, being the first day and all, so we had plenty of time to talk.

“It’s the first day and we’ve already been learning new things...” I trailed off.

“After seeing how good all the professors are and the top-notch technology offered to the students here, it’s no wonder Jokarts is considered a top-of-the-line music school." Chris observed.

“We’re going to be spending the rest of the year here...” Tyler added.

“Yep! And Professor Regalds is going to be teaching us a lot of _really_ cool things! I can’t wait to start learning how to use Ephora!” Chris beamed.

Tyler and I nodded enthusiastically.

“We start tomorrow. With the way Professor Regalds described Ephora, it’s no wonder he wants to train us in it. Imagine what could happen if a power like that weren’t tamed...” Tyler trailed off.

“You don’t want to know."

The three of us turned to see Felix standing behind us, his arms folded across his chest.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“A user of Ephora has to be trained to completely reign in all of their energy. When it’s not trained, the Ephora would act up every time they got angry or scared. Also, if one doesn’t have training,

Ephora would _not_ recharge after use, so eventually, their reserves would dry up completely. Professor Regalds explained what happens then, didn’t he?” Felix’s tone was bitter.

My brothers and I nodded.

Felix took a deep breath, “Anyways, why don’t you come with me to the Vaults? The Headmasters want me to give you something...”

“ _THE VAULTS?!!_ ” my brothers and I yelled in unison.

“Don’t be so loud! Yes, I’m taking you to the Vaults. Don’t you _dare_ leave my side, under any circumstances, got it? The Vaults are off-limits for a reason. I am usually pretty lenient about rules and

regulations, but I have _no_ sympathy for those who are _stupid_ enough to roam about in there alone! The only reason I’m taking you down there at all is because the Headmasters asked me too. Do you understand?!”

Felix’s gaze was cold. If someone like _him_ was acting like this, well death would be the least of our worries. So we nodded.

“Good. Now follow me."

Felix led is down several flights of stairs. After we got to the ground level, Felix led us to an empty classroom. He opened one of the closets in the back and turned to face us.

“Before we enter the Vaults, there are a few more rules I’d like to go over. First, _never wander off._ I’ve already warned you about the dangers the Vaults have to offer, but I can’t stress enough how important it is that you stick with me. Second, _always make some sort of noise while in the Vaults._ Sometimes, phantom images of people you are with will attempt to lead you into the darkest parts of the Vaults, where our prison is. Once one enters the prison, there is _no_ escape.

“Next, we’re going to need some method to make sure the people we are following are the real deal. When it becomes clear that the phantom images won’t work, the Vaults will use Ephora to create physical copies of people in the Vaults that are capable of interacting with us. These ‘copies’ are well known for being able to mimic

personality with one hundred percent accuracy. The one thing they can’t copy are the memories of moments that happen in this room. So I’m going to give you a password. Don’t write it down, but don’t forget it either. The password is _‘Lefthet’_. Can you remember it? We likely won’t need it, though, because we’re not going to be down there long enough for the Vaults to create the physical images.”

“Got it." my brothers and I replied.

“Good. Remember, don’t wander off, make noise, and remember the password!”  
Felix pushed on something in the back of the closet, and the panel slid open, revealing a set of staircases going down into a black abyss.

“So, do you guys want to talk about anything?”  Felix grinned, leading us down the stairs.

“What type of Ephora do you have an affinity for?” I asked.

“Manipulation.” Felix replied.

“That’s the same as Tyler’s!” Chris said.

“Yep.” Tyler said.

“Really? That one is pretty rare, compared to the other two.” Felix said.

“Can one have an affinity towards Telekinetic Ephora?” I asked.

“Nope. That’s the one everyone with Ephora can use." Felix responded. “What about Chris and Al? What types of Ephora are you best suited for?”

“I’m Elemental!” Chris replied.

“And I’m a Manifestor." I added.

“All three in the same family?!” Felix yelled.

“Xander seemed kind of surprised at that fact too. Is it really that rare?” Tyler asked.

“Yeah, that hasn’t occurred for several hundred years! You guys must have really strong bonds with each other....” Felix said

“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked.

“Usually, families only have one type of Ephora, and occasionally some families with two will pop up. But for some reason, all three will only occur in families that have deep bonds with each other. It’s not really clear why that is, it’s just the way it’s been." Felix said. “ We’re almost to our first destination. In there are artifacts given to every Ephora user when they first start their training.”

We stopped in front of a gigantic door. Engraved on the door was the number _548_.

“Password: _New Ephora Users._ ” Felix said clearly.

The door slid open, creaking loudly as it did. It appeared to be empty, except for three rings, which were lying on the stone floor.

“Tyler, you were a Manipulator, right? Alvin was a Manifestor and Chris was an Elementalist?”

“Yeah. Why do you ask?” Tyler responded.

Felix grabbed the rings, and gave one to each of us. Tyler’s was black, Chris’s was red, and mine was blue.

“These rings are powerful. With them, your abilities are multiplied several times over. Only use them as a last resort, though, because they are _dangerous_. _Don’t lose them._ You will only be given one of these. Though I suppose that you could only lose them during the first 24 hours in your possession. After that, they become linked to your Ephora, and they will be impossible to lose. Now, we need to head to one other vault. Remember the rules, and follow me!” Felix closed the vault and proceeded to lead us further into the Vaults.

We arrived at a vault with the number _253_ engraved on the door.

“This vault is special. The contents in here are meant specifically for you. In other words, only you can open it. Go on, it is your right, after all.” Felix smiled.

I took a deep breath. “How will it know it’s us?” I asked.

Felix’s expression became grim. “That’s right. You have to go through the Authentication Tests.” he sighed.

Chris swallowed. “That doesn’t sound too pleasant." he murmured.

“What do you mean ‘Authentication Tests’?” Tyler asked.

“Authentication Tests vary from person to person. There are ways to mimic a person’s Ephora, and the people who designed the Vaults knew this, so to provide another method of identification, the designers implemented the Tests. As for what they are, I’ve never actually had to access any vaults that were mine before, but I do know that people have gone insane trying to pass these tests. Of course, the people who went insane were all imposters, but that’s beside the point..” Felix trailed off.

“How do we take these tests?” I asked.

“Put a hand on the vault door." Felix instructed.

My brothers and I walked up to the door and we each put a hand on the door like Felix told us too. Immediately, my

surroundings changed. The darkness of the Vaults was replaced with white.

“So you’ve decided to take the Test...” a voice whispered in my ear.

I jumped. “Who’s there?”

“You will face your darker half. In order to enter this vault, you must overcome him." the voice said.

“What do you mean, ‘my darker half’?” I asked.

“Why don’t you take a look?”

My eyes widened as a second Alvin materialized in front of me. However, unlike me, his eyes were black, and his hair was a darker shade of blonde than mine was.

“Doesn’t it bother you?” Dark Alvin asked.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Doesn’t it annoy you that Chris always gets the spotlight? He’s only older by about a minute, after all. Shouldn’t we get some of the glory as well?” Dark Alvin grinned.

“W-what do you mean? We haven’t even done anything noteworthy! Our gigs have always been small; performances for the

elderly, recitals with an audience of less than fifty, things like that." I said.

Dark Alvin rolled his eyes, “That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it.” he responded. “You know what? I’ll just show you!”

The room changed. Gone was the white, and in its place was a living room. I recognized as Nick’s house.

In the room sat Hope, Nick, Sam, Rachel, Chris, and a past version of myself. I paled as I realized what moment this was.

“This is a low blow and you know it!” I hissed

Dark Alvin grinned, “So you recognize what’s going on, then? That’ll make things easier!”

I glared at him.

“What’ve you got to show us, Chris?” Memory Nick asked.

“It’s a composition I’ve been working on!” Chris beamed.

“Really? Play it, play it!” Rachel exclaimed.

“I helped, Chris." my past self said.

Chris ignored Past Alvin and hit the play button. When the piece finished, the others looked impressed.

“Wow, Chris, you’ve gotten a lot better over the past few months!” Hope exclaimed.

Sam nodded in agreement, “It could use more guitar, though." he said.

“This really is amazing! You’re really talented, Chris!” Rachel said.

“I helped!” Past Alvin interjected.

“Anyways, I think there are a few things you could do to improve it. Cellos don’t normally go that high...” Hope trailed off.

“WHY IS EVERYONE IGNORING ME?!” Past Alvin yelled.

Everyone fell silent.

“You didn’t really help all that much, Al." Chris said, rolling his eyes.

“What do you mean, ‘I didn’t help you that much’? I wrote the 2nd violin, the viola, the 2nd flute and 2nd clarinet parts!! Or did you think that those parts wrote themselves? Huh, Chris?” Past Alvin snarled.

Chris’s eyes widened. “Al, I-”

Past Alvin rolled his eyes, “So you’re taking credit for my work now, are you?”

“I’m sorry, Al-” Chris started.

“Oh, don’t mind me! After all, you’re so much better than I am!” Past Alvin said.

“That’s going too far, Al” Rachel whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

“I’m sure Chris didn’t mean to minimize your part." Hope said.

Chris shook his head. “I didn’t. I honestly didn’t."

“Al, getting this angry is really out of character for someone like you. Has there been something else bothering you?” Nick asked.

Past Alvin nodded. “I-I guess I just feel like I should get to do more in our compositions, you know what I mean?” he said.

The room went white again.

“See what I mean? You’re jealous! Your peers always acknowledged Chris, but never you! Doesn’t that make you angry?” Dark Alvin asked, smirking.

I took a deep breath, “I’ll admit, what you are saying is true to an extent. There have been times when I’ve wondered why my part would be recognized. When I wondered why my part was often overlooked. Now, however, I’ve started a new life in Arizona, where people didn’t appreciate either Chris or myself for our musical ability. In fact, we were both mocked because of it."

Dark Alvin grinned, “By one you now call your brother, right?” he said.

“Don’t go there." I growled.

“I’ve hit a sore spot, haven’t I? We’ll get to Tyler later. For now, continue. What were you going to say? Something about starting a new life?” Dark Alvin rolled his eyes.

I took a deep breath. “Before you interrupted me, I was going to thank you."

Dark Alvin looked taken aback, “Why?” he asked.

“Because without my jealousy of Chris, I never would have had the motivation I needed to get better. Sure, I had encouragement from my parents and friends, but what motivated me in my childhood was a desire to surpass him." I grinned.

“Which you still haven’t done.” Dark Alvin said.

I shook my head, “No, I haven’t, but I don’t need to anymore. That ambition changed when our parents died. Chris and I

were forced to develop closer bonds so that we could keep ourselves from falling to despair. He was the only one I had who could really understand me, and I couldn’t afford to be jealous of the same person who I relied on for comfort and support, so I’ve forgotten my jealousy." I said.

Dark Alvin sighed. “There’s still the matter of Tyler." he pointed out.

“I trust him because he’s my brother! My own experiences have taught me that people can change. If I can let go of my jealousy, then Tyler can let go of his anger! It’s the same principle! It’s the reason I was so quick to trust him.” I said.

Dark Alvin’s eyes widened. “You didn’t even hear my argument out!” he said.

“And I don’t need to!” I yelled.

Dark Alvin vanished, no trace of him remained except for my memories.

“You have passed the test.” the voice I heard earlier informed me.

The white vanished and I found myself back in front of the vault.

“So you passed, huh?” Felix grinned.

“I hope I don’t have to do that again.” I said, shivering.

Felix laughed. “What did you have to do?” he asked.

“I had to face my dark half. It wasn’t fun." I said.

Felix shook his head, “That wouldn’t be fun for anyone.”

After my brothers had completed their tests, Felix took a deep breath and clapped his hands, getting our attention.

“So everyone’s here, now. That’s good! The vault will open when you step in front of it. Like I said before, the items with here

are yours to keep. You can do whatever you want with them." Felix reminded us.

“I just want to get out of here! The Vaults are scary.” I said.

“I agree, let’s get this over with!” Tyler said.

The three of us stood in front of the vault. Rather than opening, like the previous vault had done, the door rippled and

vanished. Inside were three pieces of parchment and two fragmented stones that were each the size of my fist.

Felix’s eyes widened. “I never knew we had those...” he whispered, staring at the stones in shock.

“What are they?” I asked.

“Artifacts rumored to be thousands of years old. These particular ones are halves of two artifacts. One which is said to be able to enslave the dead and the other is said to grant the user the ability to use all three forms of Ephora." Felix explained.

The three of us shared a look.

“These are for...us?” Tyler asked, his expression one of shock and... was that fear?

“Scared, are you? It’s no wonder. People who wouldn’t want to use them would rather not have them.” Felix said.

I swallowed. “Our names are written on the pieces of paper in there. I suppose someone must have known we’d be coming here." I swallowed.

“This vault belonged to our former headmasters, John and Angela Lar...oh. Don’t tell me you’re...!” Felix trailed off, his eyes once again wide in shock.

“Our parents were named John and Angela Larson. T-they told us that they had full time jobs t-teaching at Ricksfield High!” I said

Chris nodded in agreement. “Yeah! Why would they keep something like this secret from us?” he asked.

“So it’s true. You are the legacy of two of the most powerful people to ever walk this planet." Felix whispered in awe.

“Wait, w-what?” I said.

“If they were that powerful, they could have prevented the car crash that led to their death...” Chris trailed off.

Felix shook his head, “I’m afraid there’s more to the story than that. Your parents were murdered by Anthos, or rather, by a one of his cronies who specialized in killing powerful people with relative

ease, using methods that avoided direct combat. What he did was use Ephora on a random person near them while they were in the car. The Ephora caused all the characteristics of a drunk. They also made sure that no-one would be able to detect the Ephora, so your parents had no idea what was happening at the time. To everyone else, it appeared that they died at the hands of a drunk driver." he explained.

My mind was whirling with unfinished thoughts and emotions. Our parents were murdered? By Anthos?

Chris was pale. “So they were murdered by an evil madman.”

Tyler look angry, “Anthos killed my mother?” he asked, his voice shaking slightly.

Felix nodded. “I’m not going to try to offer you words of comfort, because I’m not very good at that sort of thing. Let’s take this stuff with us, so you can read those letters in the comfort of our dormitory.” he said.

We nodded.

“Thank you, Felix, for taking us down here and telling us the truth of what happened then." I said, my voice cracking.

Felix nodded, “It was my pleasure." he replied.


	11. CHAPTER XI: TYLER

We were back in the dormitory, and I was in bed. My lamp was turned on, so I could read the letter my mother had written to me.

_Tyler,_

_I’m so sorry I couldn’t take you with me when I left Frank. I tried everything I could, but it just wasn’t enough. Anyways, if you’re reading this letter, then four things have happened:_

  * _John and I are dead. If we weren’t, we’d be telling you this in person._


  * _You’ve met your brothers._


  * _You’re attending Jokarts._


  * _You’ve started your Ephora training._



_I’m sorry, but I can’t fill this letter with words of love and adoration for you. There are several important things that I need you to know._

_Halves of two powerful artifacts were stored in the vault, along with these letters. DO NOT LET ANTHOS GET HIS HANDS ON THESE. I can’t stress enough the importance of keeping these away from him. Thankfully, they’re useless with only one half, and no-one knows where the other halves are._

_I want you and your brothers to find the other halves of these artifacts. Anthos doesn’t know anything about you, Tyler, though he does know about Alvin and Chris. As for how I know this, my Ephora granted me the unique ability to see into the future._

_That brings me to another point. Anthos isn’t everything he appears to be. You’ll know what I mean soon._

_Thank you for being my son, Tyler_

  _Angela Larson_

 “We’re supposed to find the other halves of these artifacts?” I whispered to myself, “Where are we supposed to start?”

“You’ve finished too, huh?” Alvin whispered from beside me.

Oh. Right. I forgot Alvin slept next to me.

That came out wrong.

“Yeah." I replied.

Alvin hugged me, much to my shock and embarrassment.

“What are you-?” I began.

Alvin grinned, “We’re brothers, right? What’s a little hug?” he said.

“But why?” I asked.

“Just go with it. Al’s like that.” Chris sighed, shifting his body so that he was facing us from his bed across the room.

“I’m glad they separated us by family...” I trailed off.

When we had arrived at the dorm for the first time, we’d noticed that there were doors with different family names printed on

each of them. Felix then went on to explain that we had the option of either sleeping in the shared dorm or the private family dorm. It was nice.

Alvin grinned, “Yeah! Now we can hug as much as we want!”

“That’s not why they gave us this room, Al!” I protested.

Alvin blinked, “Then why did they?” he asked.

“So families can have some alone time...” I trailed off.

“And hug!” Alvin added.

“NO!!” I yelled.

“There’s no use, Ty. Not when he gets like this.” Chris said.

“It’s late! At least let me sleep!” I yelled.

“You can sleep with me hugging you!” Alvin said.

My face went tomato red.

Chris looked at me, “I’m so sorry. At least he’s not like this all the time.” he said, his face clearly showing that he was relieved that it wasn’t him.

I took a deep breath, “I can live. Besides, at least it’s my brother and not some random stranger."

“Yay! Tyler’s accepted his fate! Muahahahaha!” Alvin laughed maniacally.

“Al...?” I trailed off, “You okay...?”

“I found a king-sized candy bar in a vending machine we passed, and I ate it! All the sugar....” Alvin said dreamily.

Chris paled. “YOU ATE A KING SIZED CANDY BAR?!”

Alvin nodded enthusiastically, “Yep! Don’t worry, Ty’s the only one I’m going to hug!” he grinned.

I looked at Chris. “I’m not looking forward to Halloween.”

“I love Halloween! All the candy ever! Plus we get to dress up!” Alvin grinned.

Chris sighed, “You and me both, Ty. You and me both." he shook his head.

It took me about an hour to fall asleep, with Alvin’s unusual hyperness, shouting and bouncing around the room.

All while holding on to me.

It wasn’t fun.

Anyways, it took him half an hour to calm down. After he had calmed down, he asked me to put my arms around him. I didn’t want another episode, so I reluctantly complied. He fell asleep soon after that. It took me about an extra half an hour to fall asleep, though, because I wasn’t used to the strange sensation of hugging and being hugged while in bed. It was oddly comforting, in a way.

Oh gosh, that came out wrong! Don’t assume it’s anything more than hugging! The proper term would be ‘snuggling’!

Anyways, after I fell asleep, I found myself in a white room, similar to the place I’d taken the Authentication Test in. In front of

me was a child, who appeared to be about ten years old. He had murky green eyes and jet black hair.

“Will you help me?” he asked.

“Help you with what?” I asked.

“I need you to free me." the boy said.

“Free you? From what?” I asked.

“The demon. The demon that controls my body." the boy said, tears starting to form in his eyes.

“Woah, please don’t start crying!” I said, holding my hands out in an attempt to placate him.

The boy smiled, “So you do care.” he said.

“Where did that come from?” I asked.

“The other people I’ve tried to contact didn’t care as much as you do. I like you!” the boy grinned.

“I need more details if you want my help." I said.

“Right! My name is Anthony Grimstone. About four years ago, my sister passed away due to an incurable illness. What happened next... well see for yourself. This memory is pretty personal, so please keep that in mind as you’re watching. I’m showing this to you because I believe that you’re capable of freeing me." the boy said.

The white was replaced by what looked like a waiting room for a hospital. Anthony was sitting in one of the chairs, his expression one of anger and grief. Seeing that expression on a child’s face was heartbreaking.

The door to the waiting room opened. A nurse was standing behind it, her expression grim.

“Anthony Grimstone?” she said.

Anthony rose from his seat, his feet moving his body mechanically to where the nurse was standing.

“We’re sorry, but your sister only has a few minutes left to live. She has regained consciousness. If you want to talk to her before she dies, then now’s the time to do it.” the nurse said.

The expression on Anthony’s face made me want to cry.

“Take me to her." Anthony managed to say.

We followed the nurse to one of the operating rooms.

Somehow, I could tell that the girl lying on the operating table was blind. She had jet black hair, like Anthony’s.

“It’s okay. I’m here, Selena.” Anthony whispered.

Selena smiled weakly. “I’m glad.”

Tears started cascading down Anthony’s cheeks. He blinked, as if he were confused.

“That was the first time I remember crying." the current version of Anthony said.

I nodded.

“Tony," Selena said, “Will I be able to see the stars again?” she asked, her voice hopeful.

The past version of Anthony nodded slowly, “Yes, Lena." he whispered, grasping her hand, “Yes, you will."

“I’m glad...stars are so beautiful.” Selena whispered.

Selena closed her eyes for the last time, and the machine, which had been tracking her steadily declining pulse, gave a long beep, signalling the loss of the life of Selena Grimstone.

Anthony started sobbing uncontrollably. The nurses didn’t seem to know what to do with him.

“Anthony, we need to get going." a voice said from behind us.

Anthony looked up, “Mom, she’s dead! I don’t want her to go, I still haven’t beaten her! I want to play chess with her again!” he said.

Mrs. Grimstone put her hand over her mouth. “We can’t grieve here, Tony! We’re going take Selena home, and give her a...proper funeral." It was apparent that she was trying not to cry either.

Anthony nodded slowly. “Fine. Let’s go, mom.".

The scene shifted. Anthony was lying in his bed, face buried in his pillow, sobbing uncontrollably, like he’d been doing at the hospital.

I felt an evil presence enter the room. Anthony evidently felt it too, because he sat up, turning to face the door.

“Who’s there?” he asked.

“Such a shame, your sister dying like that. She had such potential...” a voice said.

“Don’t talk about my sister like that! You don’t know anything!”

“What if I told you I could bring her back to life?” the voice said

Anthony’s eyes widened. “You...can?” .

The shadows seemed to thicken in front of the door. From the shadows arose a figure that appeared human, that is, until the shadows dispersed and his true form was revealed.. His eyes were blood red and when he opened his mouth, I saw that his tongue was blue. His skin was purple, and he had an extra eye on his forehead.

“My name is Falthos. I have power over the dead.” he said.

“What do I have to do?” Anthony asked, his expression determined.

“I need you to sign a contract with me, giving me permission to raise her." Falthos said, pulling out a contract written in a strange language.

“Why can’t I read any of this?” Anthony asked, suddenly scared.

“Don’t worry about that, all it says is that you’ll give me permission to raise Selena.” Falthos said.

“What do I sign with?”

Falthos pulled out a knife. “How does using your blood sound? Don’t worry, all I need is enough to write your name."

“B-blood?” Anthony uttered, his face pale.

“Hey, don’t be so scared! Just cut your finger and write your name on the line." Falthos said, giving the knife to Anthony.

Anthony hesitantly did as Falthos asked, cutting his finger and using the blood to write his name. The letters on the contract glowed a deep shade of red after he did so.

Falthos grinned. “Perfect! Now I can use your body in any way I see fit!”

Anthony paled. “T-that’s not what we agreed too!” he yelled, an expression of terror on his face.

Falthos rolled his eyes, “I’m a demon, not a saint. I play dirty!”

“N-no! Help me! Someone, please! HELP...!”  He was cut off as Falthos struck him across the face.

“D-don’t, please stop!! I’ll do anything." Anthony said, tears falling down his cheeks.

Falthos grinned, “It’s too late!”

The room was enveloped in a blood red light. Falthos disappeared, and Anthony screamed in pain as the demon entered his body, taking him over.

“On entry in the human world for the first time, a name change is required so that your name is reminiscent of your host’s. I think I’ll go with...Anthos!” The demon said, flexing Anthony’s fingers.

The bedroom disappeared, replaced with the now familiar white surroundings.

The current Anthony was sobbing. I walked over and hugged him, allowing him to sob in my chest.

“Why did you agree to a contract with a demon?” I asked softly.

Anthony swallowed thickly, “I wasn’t in my right mind at the time. I’d just lost my sister. I didn’t want to believe that she was dead, yet at the same time I knew that she was. I would have done anything to bring her back." he whispered, his voice filled with sorrow and regret.

I nodded in understanding.

“Anyways, once the demon entered my body, it stopped aging for some reason. I think it’s because of the demon’s aura taking over all of the bodily functions. That’s why I appear as young as I do, even though in reality I’m almost fifteen.” Anthony said.

“That makes sense. How do you want me to help you? I don’t have any experience with this sort of thing. And why me? Couldn’t you choose someone who’s more capable?” I asked.

“I tried to contact the man called Felix, but his mental defenses were too strong. I couldn’t get in. The truth is, I can only be liberated by someone who has the same type of Ephora as I do." Anthony said.

“So that’s why you’ve picked me and not Chris or Alvin." I  said.

Anthony nodded, “I wouldn’t be able to get into their mindscapes and link my soul with either of them. With you, however, I can.”

“You want to link your soul with mine? What does that even mean?” I asked.

“Falthos has control over my body, but he doesn’t have any control over my soul, so I had to learn how to manipulate the soul,

enabling me to travel outside of my body and into the mindscape of people like you.” Anthony said.

I recalled what Xander said about manipulating the soul. According to him, very few had managed to achieve that level of control, and those who did were said to be extremely powerful.

“You’ve learned how to manipulate the soul?” I asked.

Anthony shook his head, “ I should have worded it differently. It’s not so much soul manipulation as it is soul travel. I

can enter and exit anybody at free will, though I can only contact those with the same Ephora as myself.”

“That makes sense. Explain to me how the process of binding your soul to mine works.” I said.

Anthony grinned, “It’s quite simple really. All it really does is give me the ability to interact with you while you’re awake.”

“So I’ll have a voice in my head. Sounds fun." I said sarcastically.

“Am I really that annoying?”Anthony asked playfully.

I shook my head, “No, you’re not. You’re kind of cute, actually, though if you tell anybody I said that you’re dead meat. I’m just worried about what the others will think. To my brothers, it’ll appear as if I’ve suddenly developed schizophrenia.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be able to communicate with me with your thoughts. If you want me to hear something you’re thinking, I’ll hear it." Anthony said.

“So that’s how I’ll know that this wasn’t some crazy dream.” I said.

Anthony nodded, “It’s about time for you to wake up! You have an appointment with Professor Regalds, do you not?”

I nodded, “So you’ve been with me for a bit." I said.

Anthony swallowed, “Since before you apologized to Chris and Al.” he admitted.

My eyes widened, “So that means you know about my old home situation.”

Anthony looked down, “I don’t usually like to spy on people, but something seemed to draw me to you. It made me really happy when I discovered that you had Manipulation Ephora!”

“It’s alright. I’m not the same person as I used to be. If I were, I would’ve punched you in the gut.” I said.

The white faded, Anthony along with it. It was replaced with the familiar black that one saw when closing their eyes.

I opened my eyes. Alvin and Chris were awake already.Alvin sitting in one of the armchairs and reading a book, and Chris still lying in his bed, doing something on his iPod.

“You guys ready for our next meeting with Xander?” I asked.

“Yes!” Alvin grinned.

“What Al said." Chris said.

 _“Are you ready?”_ Anthony’s voice asked inside my head.

I sighed, _“Yeah, I’m ready.”_ I replied, trying to communicate the way that Anthony told me too.

A transparent image of Anthony appeared beside me. I tried not to jump at his sudden appearance.

 _“You can see me because my soul is bonded with yours. Hopefully you can get my body back before the school year ends.”_ Anthony said.

 _“Why?”_ I asked.

Anthony winced, _“Because Anthos is planning something big. Something which only I can prevent. If he manages to pull it off, you’d be the only one that wouldn’t be affected, and that’s because you have my soul with you.”_

“...Tyler? You coming?” Chris asked.

I jumped, “Yeah, I’m coming! Don’t leave without me!” I yelled.

When we arrived at Xander’s office, we were greeted by a grim looking Xander and his wife, Professor Mary Regalds.

“Felix informed me that the Larsons left what we had of the two most powerful artifacts we had in our possession to you.” Xander said.

We nodded. “Is that a problem?” I asked.

Mary shook her head, “No, it’s not. We just wanted to go over some of the responsibilities that you’ll have now that you have halves of two of the Twelve Great Stones.”

“Twelve Great Stones?” Alvin repeated, his expression confused.

Xander nodded, “Yes, the Twelve Great Stones. Together, they’re supposed to make the Grand Stone, an artifact that is capable

of making reality bend to one’s wishes. Our spies have informed us that Anthos already has one of these artifacts. They aren’t sure which

one it is, but the artifacts usually take a while before they’re ready for use." he said.

“Our parents wanted us to find the rest of these artifacts. How are we going to go about doing that?” I asked.

Xander nodded, “I’m glad you asked. After today, you won’t need me to help you learn how to use your Ephora. Today, you’re going to go through the process of Activation. What that means is you’re going to ‘Activate’ the ability to use your specific type of

Ephora. Once one is Activated, they will have all the knowledge needed to learn how to use your Ephora. What I’m going to do is send you out immediately after your Activation. I’m going to have Felix help you, as well, because his Telekinetic Ephora is top-notch. Nothing can get past his senses. He’ll also help you with your training.”

“How does Activation work?” I asked.

“That’s what I’m here for. We need masters of two different types of Ephora in order to Activate a new user. Once your Ephora is Activated, it will start recharging after use. You should be glad I stopped your Ephora back in Arizona. If I didn’t, you would have died, Tyler.” Mary said.

“That was you?” I asked.

“Yep. Not only would you have died, but you would have taken the entire city of Phoenix with you. Death by Ephora depletion isn’t pretty.” Mary said.

“Anyways, about this Activation...” Alvin said.

Xander nodded, “This needs to be done quickly as possible. We can’t afford to wait any longer now that we know what Anthos is planning. We need those artifacts so that Anthos doesn’t create the Grand Stone. If he manages to create one, then all of creation is doomed.”

“All of creation?” I asked.

Xander took a step toward me. “Like I said, the Grand Stone enables one to make reality bend towards its user’s whim. This includes being able to travel through time and space, as well as through alternate dimensions. Anthos won’t stop at Earth, he’ll move on to other worlds, until he’s taken over every single one, and with the Grand Stone, nobody would be be able to stop him.

“This is why we’re using the alternate Activation method. Normally, it’d take about five years to ‘Activate’ one’s Ephora, but this method does it in an instant. It’s also forbidden, because of how dangerous it is.” Xander sat down in the armchair after he finished his explanation.

I swallowed.“Dangerous?”

“There’s a chance that you could die.” Mary said.

I paled. “You sure we want to go through with this?!”

Xander nodded, “We want you able to defend yourselves as soon as possible. Either you’ll die, or you’ll live. It’s that simple.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.” Mary reassured us.

“Let’s start, already!” Alvin yelled.

“Who’s first?” I asked.

“Let’s start with the oldest again, like we did when I issued the test to discover what Ephora you were suited for." Xander said.

I took a deep breath.

“What do I have to do?” I suddenly felt brave, like the prospect of death didn’t scare me.

“Sit still on this chair while Mary and I pour pure Ephora into you.” Xander said, gesturing to a folding chair sitting in the middle of the room

As soon as I sat down, Xander snapped, and a circle similar to the one that Xander had drawn drew itself on the floor around the chair, except this one had two circles of rotating symbols, the outer rotating to the right and the inner to the left.

“Why did you draw the last circle by hand if you could’ve done this?” I asked.

Xander shook his head, “The only reason I can draw the Activation circle like that is because it’s unique.”

 _“In order to draw an Activation circle, you have to possess a special artifact."_ Anthony said helpfully.

I jumped. _“You’ve been  unusually quiet! Why?”_ I asked him inside my head.

 _“Don’t worry about the Activation. You won’t die."_ Anthony said.

 _“How do you know that?”_ I asked.

Anthony’s response was interrupted by a sudden pain. I screamed. It felt as if my blood was literally boiling, melting my bones and organs as it did so.

Of course, it wasn’t. I didn’t know what was happening, but I’m betting that it had something to do with the unfamiliar Ephora being introduced to my system.

The pain stopped. I fell off the chair, my muscles tight and barely moveable.

“You survived! Barely." Xander’s voice sounded muffled.

“His senses have been temporarily damaged. When he recovers, they’ll be at least ten times better than the average human’s.” Was that Mary’s voice?

My vision starting slipping in and out of focus. I suddenly felt extremely dizzy. I didn’t want to try to stand up, because I knew that I’d pass out.

Of course, I passed out anyways. At least I didn’t hit my head on anything hard.

“...They’ve been out for a week now.”

“Activation does that to you.”

I groaned as I sat up. When I slowly opened my eyes. I noted that I could make out individual cracks on the walls.

Wait, I could do _what?!_

I noticed that I could feel the creases in the bed sheets. The number of different scents flowing through my nose made me dizzy. I could hear Xander and Mary talking, even though they were whispering on the other side of the room. I could taste the air, and I noticed that there was a hint of mint.

“You’re awake!” Xander grinned.

His voice sounded deafening to my newly enhanced senses. I winced as I covered my ears.

Xander looked sheepish. “Right. Don’t want to you to go deaf right after your Activation.”

“You’ve been out for a week." Mary said, “Anyways, you’ve probably noticed that you have heightened senses. I’m sorry, but they’re stuck like that. You’ll have to get used to it.”

I groaned, “It’s fine. Can I at least make my taste buds normal?” I asked.

Mary nodded, “Actually, that’s one of the two you can reduce, the other being smell. Concentrate, and your Ephora will make your tastebuds normal again. You should know how to use your Ephora now that you’ve been Activated.”

“How exactly does Activation work? All you really explained was that you needed masters of two different branches of Ephora.” I wondered.

Xander grinned, “An Activation occurs when two different types of Ephora are introduced into the system. More often than not, the two different Ephoras will cause an overload, resulting in an explosion. The circle was a safety measure, meant to contain the

explosion so that it didn’t wipe out everything within a hundred-mile radius. We should go get the new Call of Duty... ”

“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked.

I felt a chill crawl up my spine. It was like a demon had entered the room.

“Xander....” Mary said, her voice making my hair stand on end.

“Yes, Mary?” Xander asked meekly, blood draining from his face.

“Were you about to start rambling about _Call of Duty_ of all things?” she said dangerously.

“N-no. I wasn’t! I swear!”

A red aura formed around Mary, causing her hair to fly out in different directions, somehow defying gravity.

“I know where you keep your action figures.” Mary threatened.

“No, not the action figures! Keep away from those!” Xander begged.

Mary smirked, “Would you rather I burn your secret stash of Magic The Gathering cards?”

Xander shook his head, “I’m sorry! I won’t ramble anymore, I swear!”

The red aura disappeared, and Mary’s hair went to back to normal.

“Good.” she said.

“How did she do that?” I whispered.

Xander gulped, “She’s a Manifestor, and she’s somehow managed to figure out how to Manifest her aura. She’s able to make

entire armies run away in fear. Of course, that’s assuming the armies don’t have Ephora.”

Mary folded her arms, “It took me years to get to that level. Of course, I spent five Activating my aura, something which we did for you in an instant.” she said.

“How are Chris and Alvin,?” I asked

“They’re fine. The only thing that’s going to bug them is their enhanced senses.” Xander said.

“Thank goodness.” I said.


	12. CHAPTER XII: CHRIS

“Chris and Alvin should be waking up any minute now...” Was that Xander speaking?

I cracked my eyes open. Everything was clear. Huh. That was weird. They must have left my glasses on.

I felt my face. Nope. No glasses. 

Strange.

The fabric felt kind of weird too. It was like there were way more creases than normal. I could taste the air. The number of scents my nose detected almost overloaded my senses. It probably would have, too, but it felt like something was preventing it from doing so.  _ ‘My Ephora,’  _ I thought, though I had no idea how I knew that.

I flexed my fingers. Xander said we’d know more about our specific types of Ephora after the awakening. I was an Elementalist, which meant I could make flames appear in my palm like Xander did.

I concentrated, allowing the Ephora to flow to my hand. I made the Ephora vibrate as fast as possible, and I jumped as I nearly set the bed on fire.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen!” I yelled. I winced at my own voice. Was I always that loud?

I heard someone chuckling. I turned to see Xander, who was evidently amused at my failed attempt to control fire like he had done.

“It’s harder than it looks, isn’t it?” he said.

“How do you make it so small?” I asked.

“It’s all about control. Not only did I have to concentrate on making the Ephora vibrate, I also have to concentrate on the size and the intensity of the flame. You saw what happens if you forget the second part.”

“It goes out of control! I understand! Thank you, sir.” I grinned.

“Why don’t you try it again?” Xander asked.

I nodded, closing my eyes as I did so. Once again, I allowed the Ephora to flow to my hand. This time, however, I imagined what the flame would look like in my hand as I concentrated on making the Ephora vibrate to create heat.

“Well done, Chris!” Xander beamed.

I opened my eyes. My hand was on fire, like I’d intended. I got it on the second try?

“This is easy!” I exclaimed.

“Making a small fire like that one is one of the fundamental basics of Elemental Ephora. The basics come naturally to those who’ve been Activated.” Xander said..

“Chris is finally awake?” Tyler’s voice called. Even through the door, it sounded as though he was standing right next to me.

“Yep!” Xander replied.

“Alvin awake yet?” I asked.

Xander shook his head, “He should be waking up any second though.”

And as if on cue...

“What the heck? I have perfect vision! And the air tastes like mint! And everything smells funny...” Alvin yelled from the bed beside mine.

“That’s the first thing you say when you wake up?” Xander asked.

“It’s confusing! Why isn’t everything getting overloaded with these enhanced senses?” Alvin asked.

“It’s the Ephora. It prevents your senses from overloading.” Mary said as she walked in the doorway.

“How long have we been out?” I asked.

“I woke up two days ago, and I was out for about a week." Tyler said.

“Now that everyone’s awake, we can begin your mission. As soon as Felix arrives, you’re going to set out to find those artifacts.”

“I’m here, sir.”

Felix materialized on the the opposite side of the room.

“You sent me a message saying that everyone was awake, so I came as quickly as possible. You want me to go with the Larsons on their mission? I can do that, but what of my team?” Felix asked.

Xander shook his head, “We don’t want to send too many people out. Even sending four is pushing it. You will leave now.”

“And what about our supplies?” I asked.

“Everything you have is packed and ready, and your friends have been informed of your absence as well. They wanted to come with you, but we forbad it.” Mary explained.

“How did you know that they knew?” I asked.

Xander grinned, “That’s a secret!”

Felix rolled his eyes, “They had me track you, in case something happened again.” he said.

Xander pouted, “You’re not supposed to tell them that! They’re supposed to stare in awe at our omnipotence!”

“You used a big word! Well done!” Felix clapped enthusiastically.

“Hey! I’m smart!” Xander yelled.

“You’re powerful. There’s a difference.” Mary said.

“You had us followed?” I asked, glaring at the headmasters.

“Yes! If something like that incident in Phoenix happened again, we needed to make sure someone was with you at all times! Mary can’t be everywhere at once, you know!” Xander said.

“Why were you there, anyways?” Tyler asked.

Mary scratched the back of her head nervously. “I was going shopping.”

“That was good timing, that was.” Alvin rolled his eyes.

“We’ve gotten off topic! Wait here while I grab your supplies. I won’t be long.” Mary dashed out the door.

Mary was gone for about ten minutes. When she came back, she was carrying four bags with some difficulty.

“I would have appreciated it if you had helped, Xander!” Mary gasped.

“You seemed to have it taken care of, Mary.” Xander said.

Mary glared at Xander as she put our bags down. “I’m not as young as I used to be! My strength enhancing aura doesn’t last as long anymore!” 

“There, there, no need to get so angry!” Xander protested, his voice betraying a slight hint of fear.

Mary took a deep breath. “You’re right. I don’t need to get angry over something so trivial.” she then turned to us.

“What are you waiting for? You have your supplies, so GET GOING!” she yelled.

“Right! We’re leaving!” Felix yelled. We grabbed our bags and.

“These are heavy!” I gasped, lifting my bag.

“What’re in these, anyways?” Tyler moaned, trying to lift his own bag.

“I don’t know! These were definitely lighter when we packed for Jokarts...” Alvin trailed off.

“Ah! I’ve packed instruments that I thought would suit your personalities! Because you’ve awakened your Ephora, anything music related will come easily to you! You’ll be able to master those within a week!” Xander exclaimed.

“ _ INSTRUMENTS?!! _ ” My brothers and I yelled in unison.

“We’re looking for artifacts! We don’t have time for that sort of thing!” Felix protested.

“You know how to play every instrument in existence, Felix. That’s the only reason you don’t have any in your bag.” Xander said..

“That’s not what I meant! Instruments are heavy, and we’re going to be traveling a lot! They’ll slow us down a ton!” Felix exclaimed.

“You can make the bags feather light, can’t you, Felix?” Mary asked.

Felix blushed. “Right! I can!”

Felix waved his hand, and suddenly the bags felt like they were empty.

“Right, now let’s get going!” he exclaimed, marching out of the door..

Felix led the four of us to a train station not that far from Jokarts. The train looked like it was carved out of gold(what was it with Jokarts and gold?) The platform was  _ huge _ ! There was one thing bothering me, though.

Where the  _ heck  _ were the tracks?

This train had to have tracks. 

Right?

My eyes widened. 

“Don’t tell me this thing flies.” I said.

“You figured it out that quickly, huh?” Felix asked.

My brothers’ eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

“Our first destination is in New York. There’s a museum there that’s displaying a stone they found in Egypt. According to the website, the Egyptians believed it had power over demons.”

Tyler’s head shot up. “Power over demons?” he asked.

Felix smirked, “More likely it can summon and control creatures from Harthniex. The things that come from there are what inspired most myths about monsters and other fantastical creatures.”

“How are we going to get our hands on it? If it’s displayed at a museum in New York of all places...” I trailed off.

Felix grinned, “We’re going to steal it! We’re going to waltz right into that museum, which, by the way, is credited for having one  of the best security systems in the world, and steal it right from under their noses!”

“We’re going to  _ steal it?! _ ” I yelled.

“Why can’t we try a more honest approach?” Alvin asked apprehensively.

Tyler grinned, “This sounds fun! Count me in!”

Alvin and I stared at him.

“I thought you were against stealing now!” I whined.

Tyler rolled his eyes, “The diplomatic approach would probably take too long. Anthos supposedly has one of the Twelve Stones already, right? I’m guessing he’s not going to let it sit on a shelf and collect dust while he searches for the rest of them.  Xander said that the Stones need some time before they’re ready to use. I’m guessing that Anthos is trying to get his ready and use it to help with his next move.” Tyler turned to look at us.

“Tyler’s right. Going through the process of buying anything from the Brooklyn Museum would probably take at least two months.We can’t afford to waste that kind of time." Felix said, “Let’s get on board. We can talk more on the train. We can also look at the schoolwork Mary gave you.”

“Schoolwork?” I asked.

Felix rolled his eyes. “Yes, schoolwork. Did you forget that you’re attending a prestigious music conservatory? Normally, people your age aren’t even considered for Jokarts. The only reason you’re here is because you aced their screening test.”

“We were screened? How come I wasn’t aware of this?” I asked.

“The screening process varies from person to person. Sometimes, the applicants are chosen simply because the professors stumble on videos uploaded to YouTube. Sometimes, they ace one of 

their many hidden music theory tests on the internet.” Felix explained as we entered the train..

When I got in, I noticed that the cars were all lined with velvet carpet(which was getting kind of old. Couldn’t they have the carpet be a cooler color like green? Or silver? Why did everything covered with carpet have to be dark red all the time?)

We sat in the first cabin on the right. The seats were the same shade of red as the carpet. Felix opened a small, barely visible compartment next to the window. Inside was a red button. Felix pushed it.

“Reporting for duty, Felix Soratowa, along with Chris, Alvin, and Tyler Larson. We are ready for departure.”he grinned.

“You are using the special flying train reserved for missions, which, by the way, I designed.”

The message was obviously recorded, as I recognized the voice instantly.“Dad designed this train?”

Felix grinned at my amazement. “John Larson was famous for his many different inventions that ran off of Ephora.” 

“There’s so much we don’t know about our parents...” Alvin said.

“You’ll discover more about them as we go through our mission.” Felix said.

I felt the train start. I looked out the window and saw that we were moving.

“Brace yourselves.” Felix said.

His warning came a little too late.

It felt as if something were pressing me into the seat. I tried to move, but found that I couldn’t. In the corner of my eye, I could see through the window that the train station was long gone. We were getting higher, and higher, and higher....

I found that I could move again.

“We’re going to arrive at New York in about five days.” Felix informed us.

“We have to spend five days on this thing?!” I yelled.

“Jokarts is located in Germany." Felix explained, “This train only moves at about 70-80 miles an hour, because most of its function is meant to conceal it from regular human eyes.”

“Jokarts is in Germany? We moved that far in the space of eight minutes?” I asked, referring to when we first came to Jokarts.

Felix nodded. “Yep. Xander said he picked instruments for you to learn that he thought would suit your personalities, right? Why don’t you take a look and see what they are?”

I opened my bag, and felt inside. To my shock, I noticed that my hand went deeper than what I thought was the bottom of the bag.

“The heck...?” I whispered, bewildered.

“Be careful, we don’t want you...” Felix started to say.

I reached a little too deep, and I fell. Afterwards, I found myself in what looked like a room full of filing cabinets.

“This is weird.” I said.

Soon after, my brothers decided to drop in as well.

“Our bags link to the same area.” Tyler said.

“What’s with all of these filing cabinets?” I wondered.

Tyler walked over to one labeled TYLER’S HOMEWORK. 

He opened it, and it was filled with papers, sorted by date.

“I have to do all of this while we’re gone...” he trailed off.

Alvin and I both had drawers like Tyler did. After a while, we saw the instruments that Xander was talking about. I got a cello, Alvin got a guitar, and Tyler....

Tyler got a percussion set, including every percussion instrument imaginable.

I laughed, “Tyler does seem like he could be a percussionist, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, he does!” Alvin agreed.

“What exactly do you define as a percussionist?” Tyler asked, his eyes glinting dangerously.

I grinned, “Well, percussionists are cool, for one! Not to mention they’re really good at keeping a beat.”

“They also have some of the coolest parts in symphonies.” Alvin added.

Tyler glared, “Yeah. If you count the occasional timpani the Mozart likes to use. Not to mention the triangle...” he shuddered.

“Come on! You know Chris and I love to use percussion in our pieces!” Alvin said, attempting to comfort Tyler.

“I suppose you’re right. The coolness of percussion depends on who the composer is.” Tyler said.

“Yep! We’re awesome with percussion!” I said.

“How do we get out of here anyways?” Alvin asked.

“There’s a ladder right there.” Tyler said, pointing.

“That’s nifty.” I said.

The four of us climbed back out of our storage space.

“Well, what do you think of your new suitcases?” Felix asked.

“They’re bigger on the inside.” I said.

“They’re also linked.” Felix said.

“Yeah. Why, though?” Alvin asked.

“I’ll give you a hint.  These bags can shrink down to a portable size, which you can carry on your back. If you get separated..” 

Tyler beamed, “Then we can use the backpacks to meet up again! That’s brilliant!”

I felt my iPod vibrate. Someone was sending me a text. I grabbed it from my pocket and looked at the number. “Nick’s texting me! I wonder how he’s doing!” I said.

_ “Hi, Chris! So you’re heading to New York at the moment, at least if what Professor Regalds told us was accurate. Ya know, I don’t get why you insist that we don’t use texting language when we text you. It’s rather infuriating, having to type out everything. ;) jk. I’m fine with it. _

_ “Anyways, since you’re awake now, I might as well tell you some of the things that have been going on. _

_ “About  five days ago, students started mysteriously disappearing. The logical conclusion is that someone has been kidnapping them, but as for the reason, nobody knows. _

_ “We’ll miss you! Hopefully you won’t miss us!(Except for me ‘cause I’m awesome. Then again, so are Hope and Rachel. And Sam.  What am I saying?) _

_ _


	13. CHAPTER XIII: NICK

“Where the heck are the Larsons? I haven’t seen them for the past two days...”

I glanced a clock mounted on the wall. “Don’t ask me, Hope. I’m just as clueless as you are.”

Hope sighed. “I’m getting worried. What if something happened to them? What if...?”

“They can take care of themselves. We’re going to be late for choir, Nick! Come on!” Rachel yelled.

My eyes widened. “Crap! Professor Birdthatch hates it when people are late! Remember when Quinn was late that one time...?”

Rachel shuddered, “Don’t remind me. I don’t think anyone could unsee what happened to him.”

“Having someone spray pink paint all over your body would probably be against the rules anywhere else.” I muttered.

Hope’s eyes widened, “Wha..?”

“Gotta go!” I yelled as Rachel and I bolted out the door.

The two of us sprinted down the hall and into the choir room. 

We were barely on time. The choir rehearsal passed without incident. After choir, I had a private voice lesson, then lunch, then a mandatory music theory class.

During lunch, I stopped to pick up today’s edition of Jokarts’ newspaper. After I sat down with the others, I opened it and starting reading. My eyes widened in shock and horror as I read the headline.

_ Jokarts Students Disappearing. _

“This isn’t good...” I whispered.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Rachel asked.

I showed her the headline.

“Are the Larsons on the list?” Hope asked, reading the newspaper over my shoulder.

“No, they’re not. They’re in the headmaster’s office, training.”

I jumped. “Soratowa! Don’t sneak up on us like that!”

Felix laughed, “Sorry. And please call me Felix. We are friends, after all.”

I rolled my eyes, “We’ve barely talked. I haven’t really gotten to know you that well, Soratowa.”

“Call me Felix!”

“Soratowa!”

“Felix!”

“Soratowa!”

“Felix!”

“SHUT UP!!”

“You don’t have to be so loud, Rach.” I grumbled.

“You don’t have to fight over something as trivial as that!” Hope said

“Anyways, what was that you were saying about the Larsons training?” I asked.

Felix grinned, “You all know a little about Ephora, right?”

The four of us nodded.

“Good! The Larsons have gone through a process known as ‘Activation,’ in which they Activate the type of Ephora they have. The Larsons explained those to you, yes?”

“Yeah.” I replied.

“Normally it takes about five years to Activate one’s Ephora, but the Larsons went through a process that did it in a day. At the moment, they are recovering. They’ll probably wake up anywhere between two and four days from now.” Felix said.

“Why did they choose to use the faster method?” Hope asked.

“Because we need those two for a special mission which only they can accomplish.” Felix said.

“What? What about us? We’re their friends! Why can’t we help?” Rachel asked, her eyes wide.

“You don’t have Ephora. That’s why.” Felix said.

“But...” Hope started, but Felix cut her off.

“You would be throwing away your lives for nothing! You would be no more than a burden to them on the quest that they’re going to take on!” Felix exclaimed.

Rachel took a deep breath. “It’s fine. We can stay where we’re at.” she swallowed, resting her head on her hand, which was propped on the table.

“Anyone know where Sam is?” I asked, changing the subject.

“He texted me, saying that he had a guitar workshop and he would be eating lunch during the second hour.” Rachel replied.

“Let’s hope nothing happens to him.” Hope said, sounding worried.

“Don’t worry. Sam’s the last person these people would want to kidnap.” I assured her.

Rachel laughed, “That’s true! Sam’s so quiet all the time, I doubt he’d be on anyone’s radar!”

“And when he does talk, it’s either about math, computers, or something completely random.” Hope added. 

Although I’d expressed otherwise, something told me that Sam was in more danger than we were giving credit. He was quiet. He was the sort of person who nobody but those close to him would notice if something happened to him.

I was relieved to see Sam in my next class. He was safe, and I hoped that it would stay that way.

Little did I know just how dangerous things were about to get at Jokarts. 

When I came back to our dormitory, I found my friends standing around at the entrance.

“Why are you all out here? You waiting for something?” I asked.

Hope nodded, “Professor Mary Regalds said she had something important she wanted to tell us.”

“The headmistress is coming down here? To see us?” I wondered.

“Is that a problem?” A voice asked from behind me.

“Ah! Why do people keep sneaking up on me?!” I yelled, whipping around to see the headmistress, grinning like she’d just done something clever.

The others laughed.

“Tyler Larson is awake.” Mary informed us.

“And the twins?” Rachel inquired.

Mary shook her head, “Not yet. You’re not going to see them after they do wake up, though, because we’re sending them straight out.”

“What? We can’t even say goodbye?” I asked.

Sam looked confused, “Are you expelling them?” he asked.

Mary shook her head, “We’re sending them out on a special mission that only they can do.” .

Sam nodded in understanding. “So it’s urgent.” 

Mary nodded, “Very," she said, “I’m not going to give you any details, just know that they’re going to head out the moment they wake up.”

I frowned, “Why don’t you want to give us details?”

Mary sighed heavily, “We’ve just discovered that one of Anthos’ top commanders is here at the school. We believe that he’s posing as one of the students.”

“Posing as one of the... y-you don’t think he could be one of us, do you? That’s nuts! We’ve known each-other for years!” Rachel sputtered.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry.” Mary said.

“Yeah. Then Anthos could cover the entire school in cheese and...”

“Sam? Now is  _ so  _ not the time.” I said.

The twins woke up about two days after Tyler, according to Professor Regalds. I sent Chris a text during our lunch break, explaining everything that had happened while he was asleep. I wasn’t sure how he’d take it.

My answer came about 30 minutes later. It was towards the end of lunch break, so I could read it before I went to class.

_ Students have been disappearing? Are you pulling my leg? Then again, you wouldn’t joke about something so serious. I hope that you and the others are keeping yourselves safe. _

_ Apparently, Jokarts is located in Germany. Also, the train we’re on can fly, though we’re going to be stuck on it for five days... Don’t ask. Felix’s explanation didn’t really make any sense to me. Designed for stealth, my...well anyways, we’re not in any danger at the moment. Text me when you can, cause it’s boring like nothing else on this stupid thing. _

“Jokarts is in Germany? How the heck can they transport someone from Arizona to Germany in the amount of time it takes  to perform Jupiter?” I wondered.

“Probably that Ephora stuff that Chris and Alvin have.” Hope said.

“Let’s get to class! We have theory first on Saturdays, remember?” Rachel asked.

I rolled my eyes, “It’s only been a little over a week. I haven’t had time to memorize the schedule.”

The rest of the day passed without much incident. The next day, however, the newspaper came out with another disturbing headline.

_ 10 More Students Missing. 5 Bodies Found. _

My eyes widened. “Bodies...?” I whispered as I showed the others the headline.

“What’s going on at Jokarts?” Hope asked, sounding scared.

“Whatever it is, I’m betting that none of the students are safe.” Rachel said.

Hope shook her head. “I agree with Rachel. Everyone, please remember to watch your backs.”she said, taking the newspaper from my hand.

“The way you say it makes it sound like the world is ending.” I grumbled.

“Well life at Jokarts certainly might!” Rachel yelled.

“Fair point.” I conceded. “At least we don’t have any possessed people running around painting cryptic messages on the walls like ‘The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir Beware...’”

“Really, Nick? Really?” Rachel asked..

“I’m a big fan of Harry Potter, thank you very much!” I said proudly.

“Let’s get going.” Hope said.


	14. CHAPTER XIV: ALVIN

It’d been two days. Two days since we started riding the flying train to New York.

I had a bit of trouble wrapping my mind around why dad chose to make a train of all things. Couldn’t he have made something more practical, like a jet?

These were the thoughts on my mind as I drifted off to sleep. The next thing I knew, I was standing in front of a building. A museum, to be exact.

Something prompted me to walk in. The museum was full of people, hustling from one display to the next. There was one person, however, that caught my eye. A girl, with fiery red hair that had black streaks in it. She was looking at a display about Ancient Egypt.

“Hi!” I exclaimed after walking up to her.

The girl jumped. “I suppose you’re here to make fun of my hair, like the rest do.” she said, looking down.

“What are you talking about? I think your hair is beautiful!” I blurted.

“Y-you really think so?” the girl stammered, blushing.

I nodded. “Why wouldn’t it be? What’s wrong with it?”

“Most call it the hair of the devil. The other kids in the orphanage didn’t like me because of it. It’s completely natural, you know.” she said. “People fear things that they don’t understand. People don’t understand how my hair could be two different colors, so naturally, they were afraid of me. Fear makes people do irrational things.”

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Maria. Maria Flare.”

“Do you want to be friends with me?” I asked, holding my hand out.

Maria’s eyes widened. “You’re not afraid of me?” she asked.

I shook my head, “I know what it’s like to bullied as well, Maria. I see no reason why we can’t be friends!”

The scene dissolved. I found myself in a white room.

“Do you know what you just saw?” a voice asked.

“Wha...? Who’s there?! Show yourself!” I demanded.

The voice chuckled, “I am your Ephora, Alvin. You can talk with me because you’ve been given the gift of prophecy. Like your mother before you, you can see the future.”

“So that was the future?” I asked.

“You should wake up. Felix wants to continue his training.” the voice said.

Felix had been teaching us how to sense people using our Ephora. Tyler was the best at it. I on the other had, sucked at it. Badly.

The white room faded, and I opened my eyes.

I groaned as I sat up, attempting to rub the sleepiness out of my eyes.

“Chris and Tyler up yet?” I asked.

Felix nodded his head.

I sighed. “What are we going to do today?”

“We’re going to work on increasing your Ephora reserves.” Felix replied.

I gave him a blank look.

Felix rolled his eyes, “I should have done this from the very beginning. With your Ephora reserves as low as they are, you’ll be limited to doing at most one or two things a day. Ephora has its limits, you know. It’s not like it’s an all-powerful art.”

The compartment door opened, revealing a disgruntled looking Chris and Tyler.

“We’ve got trouble.” Tyler said.

“What is it?” Felix asked.

“We’ve been spotted.” Chris said.

“What? By who?!” I yelled.

“I don’t know, but whoever it was obviously had Ephora. They wouldn’t have been able to see this train if they didn’t.” Felix sighed.

“What do we do?” Tyler asked.

“We do nothing. They won’t be able to get in the train, not while it’s moving." Felix replied, “Right now, we need to worry about increasing your Ephora reserves. As it stands, you’re barely capable of sensing people. I’ve decided that in order for you to improve, you need to increase your reserves. Right now, your reserves are, at best, enough to last about two minutes against an opponent who is well trained in the usage of Ephora.

“As I told Alvin, Ephora is not an all powerful art. It can’t bring back the dead. It’s impossible to totally dominate someone’s will.

“Using Ephora, there is an element of balance. The more Ephora you use to fuel an ability, the more powerful it will become. The less Ephora you use, the less powerful that ability will be. Different abilities require different amounts of Ephora. Overcharging an ability will cause a Rebound, in other words, it will explode in your face. Not using enough will cause the ability to Diffuse, or die out. With me so far?”

The three of us nodded our heads.

Felix grinned, “Good! The process to increase your reserves is rather simple. First, you need to sit down on the floor.”

We sat.

“Good. Now close your eyes. Try to find your Ephora, flowing freely inside your bodies. I warn you, the first time will be difficult. You may spend a good hour or two to try to find your Ephora.”

“Not like we have anything else to do.” I said.

“Now see, an attitude like that won’t get us anywhere. In order to find your Ephora, you need to let go of your negative emotions. Feel around inside yourself for something akin to a fire burning within your heart. Ephora is heavily influenced by the wielders emotions. If you're unwilling to learn how to use it, then you won’t be able too. If you’re angry, your Ephora will reflect that.” Felix said.

“Good to know.” Tyler said.

“Okay. I shouldn't have to give instruction more than once, so please close your eyes, and feel for your Ephora.” Felix ordered.

We did as he asked. I tried to make myself relax first, ‘cause I figured it would be easier that way. I concentrated on finding that fire that Felix described. My heart felt normal to me. What was I doing wrong? Why couldn’t I feel my Ephora.

 _“I’m right here.”_ a voice whispered to me.

 _‘Where?’_ I thought.

The voice sighed, _“You really can’t pinpoint my location? Shame, I suppose you’re not ready to utilize me quite yet.”_

 _‘What is that supposed to mean? What are you?’_ I thought, frustrated.

_“I am your Ephora, Alvin. Once you find me, I will allow you to utilize my full potential.”_

_‘You don’t sound the same as you did in my dream.’_  I noted.

The voice snorted, _‘“That was a different part of your Ephora, the part that allows you to see the future. He is separate from me.”_

 _‘Answer me this, how do I find you? What do I need to do?’_  I asked.

 _“You’ll have to figure that out for yourself, Alvin Larson._   _I am a soul forged by hate and kindness. My door can be unlocked by stone and blood, and will be opened with heart.'_

 _"I hate riddles."_ I grumbled.

The voice laughed, _“You’ll be able to figure out that one. Come back when you find its meaning. Then we can talk face to face.”_

My eyes snapped open.

“So, you’re back. How did the encounter go?” Felix asked.

“I hate riddles.” I said, putting my head in my hands.

Felix laughed, “You’ll have to solve that riddle in order to pass the training. That’s something that all Ephora wielders have to go through.”

“Figures.” Chris said.

The next three days passed without much incident. On the last day, Felix revealed that he’d purposefully set the train’s speed to the lowest possible so that he’d have more time to train us. My brothers and I just about throttled him.

It was night when we arrived at New York. When we got to our hotel room, Felix plopped down on the couch, his expression contemplative.

“What are you thinking about, Felix?” I asked.

Felix sighed, “You know, humans are very fickle creatures. We tend to get angry at even the slightest insults, and we respond to violence with violence. Wars almost always are the result of a single, selfish person who decides that they don’t have enough land so they have to conquer the nearest countries so they can have power over them. They scream for acceptance and yet they don’t offer it for those who actually deserve it. They lie and cheat and murder and steal and do all these horrible things. What good that’s left in the world is fading really quickly.

“Why can’t people be more trusting of each other? Why can’t humans help others who are in need? Humans need humans to survive. Our race would die out if we decided that we didn’t need each other, so why do we fight each other? Why do we get so hyped up about things like race or religion? Just because someone has a different belief than you do doesn’t mean that they are an evil person.

“Sorry, I was rambling. Don’t mind me.” Felix said, blushing.

“You have a valid point, Felix. But you have to remember that not all humanity is bad. While it is true that humankind is, by nature, worldly and sinful, not all of us act on those impulses. I’ve learned that for every bad thing someone does, there’s at least one

good thing that someone else has done. I’m not saying that they cancel out each other,  because they don’t. The light and goodness in the world serves to ease the pain that the darkness brings.” Tyler replied.

“Let’s not discuss philosophy. I’m tired!” I whined.

Chris nodded, “We can finally sleep in a real bed!”

“Hang on, there are four of us and only two beds!” Felix yelled.

My brothers and I glared at him, “Got a problem with sharing?” I asked.

“Err...” Felix said, sounding embarrassed.

I sighed, “You and Tyler can have the bed on the left. Chris and I will take the bed on the right. Any complaints?” I asked.

Tyler and Chris shook their heads frantically, while Felix was left looking confused.

“Why do you get to decide? I’m in charge here...”

I smiled sweetly, “I’m tired and cranky. If we sit here arguing, someone might end up getting hurt.”

“Is that a threat?” Felix asked.

I shook my head, “It’s a fact. I’m a lot more irritable when I’m tired like this.”

“Just be glad you don’t have to see him on a sugar high.” Tyler murmured.

I smiled, “Felix hasn’t seen me on one yet. I wonder how he’d react.”

“NO DON’T!!!” Tyler and Chris yelled.

“I was kidding. Now be quiet and get to bed.” I said.

Felix was staring at me, his mouth open in shock. He took a deep breath, “Fine. We’ll meet our contact tomorrow at noon, so you can get a good rest.”


End file.
